InkCraftSpider Tattoo Ideas, Designs and Meaning
31 original spider designs drawn for InkCraftBy Uladzimir TumanauUpdated
Two subjects share this page and they behave differently on skin: the animal is anatomy, all joints and mass, while the web is pure geometry. The web is the harder of the two to tattoo, and the reason has nothing to do with detail.
Black and grey traditional spider tattoo design: a detailed body and legs with bold outlines Try it on — Black and grey traditional spider tattoo design: a detailed body and legs with bold outlines
Black and grey dotwork spider tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey dotwork spider tattoo design
Color new school spider tattoo design: a cute, stylized spider Try it on — Color new school spider tattoo design: a cute, stylized spider
Black and white linework spider tattoo design, outline stencil: a detailed spider Try it on — Black and white linework spider tattoo design, outline stencil: a detailed spider
Black and white minimalist spider tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white minimalist spider tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and white geometric spider tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white geometric spider tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and grey dotwork spider tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey dotwork spider tattoo design
Black and grey sketch spider tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey sketch spider tattoo design
Black and grey neo traditional spider tattoo design: a sense of texture and movement Try it on — Black and grey neo traditional spider tattoo design: a sense of texture and movement
Color traditional spider tattoo design: a spider with a striped red and gold abdomen Try it on — Color traditional spider tattoo design: a spider with a striped red and gold abdomen
Black and grey dotwork spider tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey dotwork spider tattoo design
Black and white illustrative spider tattoo design Try it on — Black and white illustrative spider tattoo design
Black and grey illustrative spider tattoo design: a spider in a web tunnel Try it on — Black and grey illustrative spider tattoo design: a spider in a web tunnel
Black and white linework spider tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework spider tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and grey illustrative spider tattoo design: a spider centered on a spiderweb Try it on — Black and grey illustrative spider tattoo design: a spider centered on a spiderweb
Black and white sketch spider tattoo design: a spider on a web Try it on — Black and white sketch spider tattoo design: a spider on a web
Black and white illustrative spider tattoo design: a detailed spider Try it on — Black and white illustrative spider tattoo design: a detailed spider
Black and white blackwork spider tattoo design: a stylized spider on a web Try it on — Black and white blackwork spider tattoo design: a stylized spider on a web
Black and white illustrative spider tattoo design Try it on — Black and white illustrative spider tattoo design
Black and white linework spider tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework spider tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and grey dotwork spider tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey dotwork spider tattoo design
Black and grey cybersigilism spider tattoo design: a spider with long, spiky, thorn-like legs Try it on — Black and grey cybersigilism spider tattoo design: a spider with long, spiky, thorn-like legs
Black and grey cybersigilism spider tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey cybersigilism spider tattoo design
Black and white blackwork spider and skull tattoo design: a spider with a skull for its abdomen Try it on — Black and white blackwork spider and skull tattoo design: a spider with a skull for its abdomen
Black and grey dotwork spider and moon tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey dotwork spider and moon tattoo design
Color Japanese spider and flower tattoo design: a spider with a richly patterned abdomen Try it on — Color Japanese spider and flower tattoo design: a spider with a richly patterned abdomen
Black and white linework spider and web tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework spider and web tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and grey dotwork spider and web tattoo design: a spider centered on a circular web Try it on — Black and grey dotwork spider and web tattoo design: a spider centered on a circular web
Black and grey traditional spider and web tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey traditional spider and web tattoo design
Color neo traditional spider and feather tattoo design Try it on — Color neo traditional spider and feather tattoo design
Black and white blackwork spider and skeleton hand tattoo design Try it on — Black and white blackwork spider and skeleton hand tattoo design
Tap any design to see it on your own skin in the try-on — no signup.
This set of 31 spider designs, by the numbers
- Styles represented
- dotwork (6), illustrative (5), linework (4), traditional (3), blackwork (3), sketch (2)
- Black-and-grey vs colour
- 87% black-and-grey, 13% colour
- Most often drawn with
- web, skull, moon, flower
Counted from the 31 designs shown on this page. Every one was drawn for InkCraft — none are scraped or reposted. Free to reference with a link to this page.
What a spider tattoo means
The spider is patience rather than menace. It builds, waits, repairs and waits again, and almost every culture that made a story about one made it a story about craft or cunning rather than violence. Anansi is a trickster, Arachne a weaver who was too good, and neither is frightening.
The web carries the meaning more often than the animal does. A complete web is something made well over time; a torn one is work destroyed; a web with the maker absent is the most common composition of all and reads as the thing outlasting the person who built it.
⚠️ One association is worth knowing before you choose. A web on the elbow has a long-standing prison reading in several countries, sometimes tied to time served. It does not attach to spiders generally or to webs anywhere else, but it is specific enough that artists will usually mention it, and you should decide knowingly rather than discover it later.
Where the design comes from
Spiders entered Western flash through sailors and then through the biker and outlaw traditions of the mid twentieth century, which is where the harder readings come from. The web as a decorative form is much older and largely separate, appearing in lace and ironwork long before it appeared on skin.
Choosing yours
- A web is a test of line discipline and nothing else. The radials have to stay straight and evenly spaced or the whole thing reads as a mistake, and there is no shading to hide behind. It is worth seeing an artist’s healed work on geometry before booking one.
- An animal with eight legs needs room. Below roughly 8 cm the legs close toward the body as ink spreads and the silhouette turns into a blob with a fringe. A web survives small far better, because the lines are straight and separated by design.
Size, cost and placement
How big, and what it costs
A detailed spider with texture is a two-to-three-hour sitting; a clean web of similar size is often quicker but demands a steadier hand. A small web filling a corner is frequently a shop minimum, which is why it is such a common filler piece.
Where it sits, and how much it hurts
The outer upper arm, the calf and the back of the hand all take an animal at the size it needs. A web wants a corner or a joint to sit into — that is what the shape was made for — but see the note about the elbow above before choosing that one.
What to ask your artist
- To see healed photographs of their geometric work, if you want a web.
- Whether the leg spans will still read at the size you have in mind after ten years.
- Whether the placement you picked carries a reading you did not intend.
Prices vary widely by city and artist — treat these as session lengths rather than quotes, and expect a shop minimum on anything small. The cost guide turns hours into money by size, placement and style.
Common questions
Is a spider about menace or patience?
Patience and craft far more often than menace. The animal builds, waits and repairs, and the old stories about it are about cunning and weaving rather than danger. The web usually carries more of the meaning than the creature does.
Does a spider web tattoo mean something about prison?
A web specifically on the elbow carries that reading in several countries, sometimes tied to time served. It does not attach to spiders generally or to a web anywhere else, but it is specific enough to be worth knowing before you choose that spot.
How small can a spider tattoo be?
Around 8 cm for the animal. Below that the eight legs close toward the body as ink spreads and the silhouette stops reading. A web holds much smaller, because straight separated lines survive spread far better than thin limbs do.
Is a web harder to tattoo than the spider?
Yes, and for a reason that has nothing to do with detail. A web is geometry with no shading to hide in, so any wavering radial or uneven spacing is visible forever. Ask to see healed geometric work before booking one.
What a spider tattoo can mean
The meanings this motif carries on the pages that argue them. Each line is that page's own reason for including it.
- Halloween tattoos
- Genuinely unsettling to a large number of people, which is the actual Halloween effect rather than a reference to it. Eight legs at the right angles is most of the work; a spider with six reads as a beetle and loses it entirely.
- Luck tattoos
- A money spider on your skin means money coming, in folklore from England to Brazil, which is why a small spider is worn as a luck charm far more often than as anything sinister.
See it on your skin before you commit
InkCraft places any of these designs on a photo of you — scaled, wrapped and shaded to the placement you pick.