InkCraftEasy Tattoo Ideas: Bold Shapes That Heal Clean
By Uladzimir TumanauUpdated
Easy is a property of the drawing before it is a property of the sitting. A closed shape in an even line, with no shading to blend and no colour to pack, is quick for the artist, kind to the skin and hard to get wrong. Every design here is one such shape.
geometric abstract tattoo design Try it on — geometric abstract tattoo design
geometric snake tattoo design Try it on — geometric snake tattoo design
linework butterfly tattoo design Try it on — linework butterfly tattoo design
geometric tree tattoo design Try it on — geometric tree tattoo design
geometric lion tattoo design Try it on — geometric lion tattoo design
geometric bee tattoo design Try it on — geometric bee tattoo design
linework dragonfly tattoo design Try it on — linework dragonfly tattoo design
linework heart tattoo design Try it on — linework heart tattoo design
geometric abstract tattoo design Try it on — geometric abstract tattoo design
linework yin yang tattoo design Try it on — linework yin yang tattoo design
linework hummingbird tattoo design Try it on — linework hummingbird tattoo design
linework cross tattoo design Try it on — linework cross tattoo design
linework violin tattoo design Try it on — linework violin tattoo design
linework anchor tattoo design Try it on — linework anchor tattoo design
linework leaf tattoo design Try it on — linework leaf tattoo design
linework skull tattoo design Try it on — linework skull tattoo design
linework woman portrait tattoo design Try it on — linework woman portrait tattoo design
linework tiger tattoo design Try it on — linework tiger tattoo design
linework cat tattoo design Try it on — linework cat tattoo design
linework angel wings tattoo design Try it on — linework angel wings tattoo design
linework cross tattoo design Try it on — linework cross tattoo design
geometric turtle tattoo design Try it on — geometric turtle tattoo design
geometric bear tattoo design Try it on — geometric bear tattoo design
geometric shark tattoo design Try it on — geometric shark tattoo design
linework flower tattoo design Try it on — linework flower tattoo design
linework moth tattoo design Try it on — linework moth tattoo design
linework chalice tattoo design Try it on — linework chalice tattoo design
linework dog tattoo design Try it on — linework dog tattoo design
linework lion tattoo design Try it on — linework lion tattoo design
geometric dragon tattoo design Try it on — geometric dragon tattoo design
linework elephant tattoo design Try it on — linework elephant tattoo design
linework peacock tattoo design Try it on — linework peacock tattoo design
geometric crown tattoo design Try it on — geometric crown tattoo design
geometric abstract tattoo design Try it on — geometric abstract tattoo design
geometric tiger tattoo design Try it on — geometric tiger tattoo design
linework spider tattoo design Try it on — linework spider tattoo design
linework owl tattoo design Try it on — linework owl tattoo design
linework web tattoo design Try it on — linework web tattoo design
linework heart tattoo design Try it on — linework heart tattoo design
linework hummingbird tattoo design Try it on — linework hummingbird tattoo design
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
- 33
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.