InkCraftEasy Tattoo Ideas: Simple Designs and Outlines
By Uladzimir TumanauUpdated
These are easy tattoo designs: clean outlines that read at a glance, simple enough to sketch in pen and quick for any artist to tattoo. A closed shape in an even line, with no shading to blend and no colour to pack, is kind to the skin and hard to get wrong, and every design here is one such shape.
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Black and white geometric abstract tattoo design, outline stencil (1 of 2) Try it on — Black and white geometric abstract tattoo design, outline stencil (1 of 2)
Black and white geometric snake tattoo design, outline stencil: its head prominently centered Try it on — Black and white geometric snake tattoo design, outline stencil: its head prominently centered
Black and white linework butterfly tattoo design, outline stencil: a butterfly with delicate wings Try it on — Black and white linework butterfly tattoo design, outline stencil: a butterfly with delicate wings
Black and white geometric tree tattoo design, outline stencil: a circular tree Try it on — Black and white geometric tree tattoo design, outline stencil: a circular tree
Black and white geometric lion tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric lion tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric bee tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric bee tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework claw tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework claw tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework dragonfly tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework dragonfly tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework heart tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework heart tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric fairy tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric fairy tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric abstract tattoo design, outline stencil (2 of 2) Try it on — Black and white geometric abstract tattoo design, outline stencil (2 of 2)
Black and white linework yin yang tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework yin yang tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework hummingbird tattoo design, outline stencil: a hummingbird in flight Try it on — Black and white linework hummingbird tattoo design, outline stencil: a hummingbird in flight
Black and white linework cross tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework cross tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework violin tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework violin tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric fern tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric fern tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework anchor tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework anchor tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework leaf tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework leaf tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric aquarius tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric aquarius tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework skull tattoo design, outline stencil: a frontal view of a human skull Try it on — Black and white linework skull tattoo design, outline stencil: a frontal view of a human skull
Black and white linework woman portrait tattoo design, outline stencil: a woman's face in profile Try it on — Black and white linework woman portrait tattoo design, outline stencil: a woman's face in profile
Black and white linework sagittarius tattoo design, outline stencil: a raised bow Try it on — Black and white linework sagittarius tattoo design, outline stencil: a raised bow
Black and white linework tiger tattoo design, outline stencil: the head of a tiger Try it on — Black and white linework tiger tattoo design, outline stencil: the head of a tiger
Black and white linework cancer sign tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework cancer sign tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric unicorn tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric unicorn tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework cat tattoo design, outline stencil: a cat walking with its tail straight up Try it on — Black and white linework cat tattoo design, outline stencil: a cat walking with its tail straight up
Black and white linework angel wings tattoo design, outline stencil: a single angel wing Try it on — Black and white linework angel wings tattoo design, outline stencil: a single angel wing
Black and white linework cross tattoo design, outline stencil: a cross draped with fabric Try it on — Black and white linework cross tattoo design, outline stencil: a cross draped with fabric
Black and white geometric turtle tattoo design, outline stencil: a sea turtle Try it on — Black and white geometric turtle tattoo design, outline stencil: a sea turtle
Black and white geometric bear tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric bear tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric diamond tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric diamond tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric shark tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric shark tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework orchid tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework orchid tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework flower tattoo design, outline stencil: a single, detailed flower Try it on — Black and white linework flower tattoo design, outline stencil: a single, detailed flower
Black and white linework aquarius tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework aquarius tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework moth tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework moth tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white linework chalice tattoo design, outline stencil: a chalice with a host Try it on — Black and white linework chalice tattoo design, outline stencil: a chalice with a host
Black and white linework dog tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework dog tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric griffin tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric griffin tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric crown of thorns tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric crown of thorns tattoo design, outline stencil
Filled by rule: every design here is a linework or geometric outline carrying exactly one subject label.
These 40 easy tattoos, in numbers
- Black and grey
- 40
- Colour
- 0
- Styles
- 2
- Subjects
- 37
What makes a tattoo easy
Easy means the tattoo can be done well by any competent artist in one short sitting and healed without drama. That rules out more than people expect. Blending grey takes hours and a steady hand; packing colour means repeated passes over the same skin, which is what makes a sitting long and a heal sore; fine line demands a single needle at a slow, light pace and a placement that will hold it. What is left is the closed outline in an even, medium line, and that is what fills this page.
Linework and geometric designs are easy in that sense. The line is drawn once, at a weight the skin holds without effort, and the design is finished when the outline closes. There is nothing to build up over passes and nothing to go wrong in the heal except the ordinary scab. A geometric piece has the further advantage that it is measured: the stencil is the tattoo to the millimetre, and the artist follows rather than interprets.
The grid is filled by rule: linework and geometric designs carrying a single subject label. They come from across the site's subjects, so the page reads as a set of easy drawings rather than as a page about one thing, and every design links to the subject page where its bolder and more detailed relatives live.
Easy to heal, and where that is true
An outline heals in about two weeks with almost nothing to do: wash it, keep it moist and out of the sun, do not pick the flakes. Shaded and coloured work heals the same way but more of it, for longer, with more to lose if the aftercare slips. The easy tattoo is easy twice, once in the chair and once in the fortnight after.
Placement can make an easy tattoo hard. The outer forearm, the outer bicep, the calf and the outer thigh are the easy surfaces: flat, padded, little movement, low friction. The ribs, the sternum, the elbow, the knee and the foot make any tattoo harder, and an easy design on a hard spot is a hard tattoo. If the point is an easy first experience, choose both the design and the surface from the easy lists.
Size, oddly, does not make a tattoo easy. Very small work is harder for the artist than palm-sized work, because the tolerances shrink with the drawing, and it ages worse. An easy tattoo is a clear outline at a comfortable size, five to twelve centimetres on an arm, not the smallest version of anything.
Easy is not the same as boring
The reason easy designs have a reputation for dullness is that they are usually chosen by subtraction, by removing everything that seemed hard until nothing was left. The designs here were drawn as outlines from the start, which is a different discipline: the artist decides which five lines carry a stag, or how a wave is built from arcs, and the result is complete rather than reduced.
Geometric work in particular can be as ambitious as you like while staying easy to execute, because complexity in geometry is repetition, and repetition of a measured shape is exactly what a machine and a stencil are good at. A mandala is hours of easy work; a small realistic portrait is a short piece of very hard work. Choose the kind of difficulty you want to pay for.
See it on yourself before you book. An outline at true size on a photograph of your own arm answers the two questions that matter for an easy tattoo, whether it is big enough to hold its gaps and whether it sits where the body is flat. Try any of these on, free, then take the picture to the studio.
Common questions
- What is the easiest kind of tattoo to get?
- A closed outline in an even, medium line on a flat, padded surface: linework or geometric work on the outer forearm, outer bicep, calf or outer thigh. One short sitting, an ordinary two-week heal, and a design that reads for decades.
- Are small tattoos easier?
- Not for the artist and not over time. Tiny work has tighter tolerances and closes up as the ink spreads. An easy tattoo is a clear outline at a comfortable size, roughly five to twelve centimetres on an arm, rather than the smallest version of a design.
- How long does an easy tattoo take?
- Thirty minutes to two hours in the chair for most outlines at that size, and about two weeks to heal. Shading and colour are what turn a sitting into an afternoon and a heal into a month.
- Do easy tattoos look cheap?
- Only when they were chosen by removing things. A design drawn as an outline from the start reads as finished, and geometric and linework pieces are among the most requested styles precisely because they are complete without shading.
See it on your own skin first
InkCraft places a design on a photo of you — scaled, wrapped and shaded to the spot you pick, so you can judge the size against your own body before it is permanent.