100 Amazing Guitar Tattoo Ideas To Inspire Your Next Design
If you’re searching for tattoos of guitars to help inspire your next piece of ink, you’re in the right place. Below you will find over 100 incredible guitar tattoo ideas!
acoustic and electric guitar, bass, plectrums, small and simple, color, black and gray, forearm, full sleeves, fine line, you name it, it’s here.
Although I’m not a tattoo artist, I’m a graphic designer, I have several tattoos, I also work in a guitar shop and I have a guitar website. So I like to think that I am at least in a decent position to suggest some good guitar tattoo designs. though, feel free to disagree, haha!
guitar tattoo ideas
Personally, I find a guitar to be a very difficult subject to capture nicely as a tattoo, thanks mainly to the many small parts and the fine, intricate details. For example, in certain guitar tattoos, a great design can be completely ruined because it’s so hard to ink super straight strings on such a small scale. While researching this list, I found a ton of guitar tattoos that could have been amazing, but were ruined by crooked lines of strings. in others, the artist has omitted the strings altogether!
For this reason, I think a lot of the best guitar tattoo ideas on this list don’t include a full, accurate guitar. many of the designs in this gallery have been chosen because they manage to portray the idea of a guitar without spoiling it with too much detail.
Other designs here may not be the best executed, but I included them because I loved the concept. maybe a more talented artist could really come up with these!
I’ve done my best to include the instagram account names of each of the talented artists in case you want to see more of their work. If I’ve made a mistake with any of the names, please get in touch and I’ll correct it.
Acoustic Guitar Tattoos
While researching this list, acoustic guitar tattoos definitely seemed to be the most common choice. You acoustic guitarists are so devoted!
Acoustic guitars tend to work a little better as tattoos because they have less complex parts than their electric cousins. plus, they tend to have smoother, more fluid lines and curves.
Personally, I think number 27 is my favourite, how about you?
Guitar Pick Tattoos
Guitar pick tattoos were also a very popular design idea during my research, but I had a hard time finding many that I really liked. Turns out a guitar pick can be a pretty awkward way to restrict your art!
For me, the winner is the design that places the wave inside the pick. what do you think?
Bass Guitar Tattoos
okay, punchers and poppers, now it’s your turn! there are plenty of amazing bass tattoo designs out there, many of which seem to focus on the headstock.
Thicker, lower numbered strings on a bass make the artist’s work a little easier to recreate in a nice way.
I’ve noticed a lot of “skin tearing” style tattoos here, and these seem to work better with a bass fretboard than a 6-string electric. they look great!
Guitar Tattoo Forearm Ideas
Your forearms are a great place for a tattoo, as you can easily admire your artwork every day, or also cover it up with a shirt if needed. Plus, your forearms tend to stay about the same size if you gain or lose weight, so your ink should look fresh for a long time.
If you think pain is a problem for you, here’s something you might want to know. The outer part of the forearm is generally considered to be much less painful to ink than the inner part.
Here is a selection of the best guitar forearm tattoo ideas I could find.
Guitar Tattoo Arm Ideas
Your arm is a great place for a tattoo, as the size and space available means they can be really large and detailed. Plus, your arm spends half the year (perhaps not here in rainy Scotland!) uncovered, so it’s easy to show it off!
While it’s easy to go ultra-detailed in such a cool space, minimalist designs are very popular right now and look great here in a larger size too.
These are some of the best guitar tattoo ideas on the arm that I could find…
Here’s a quick video that explains some of the pros and cons of a forearm tattoo that is definitely worth a few minutes of your time!
guitar tattoo sleeve ideas
for those who’d rather go big or go home, a guitar sleeve tattoo might be the way to go!
These designs are not for the faint of heart and will take the longest to complete, but they will definitely have the most visual impact.
A full or half sleeve allows the guitar to blend in with other design elements for a more cohesive aesthetic. while a guitar tattoo on its own can look a bit like a sticker at times, you won’t have this problem with a sleeve!
Small & Simple Guitar Tattoos
If you’re getting your first tattoo or aren’t sure how much pain you can take, why not try one of these simple little guitar tattoos?
These are also great if you like a minimalist style or don’t allow big tattoos at work. these designs also tend to go well with most fashion styles.
for small tattoos, clear and simple is usually better…
Guitar Tattoo Designs to Avoid
why not check out my other article showing some of the worst guitar tattoo designs I could find?
At a minimum, it should give you a good idea of what types of layouts you’d like to avoid. you might also laugh a little…
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Hope you found inspiration from this list of the best guitar tattoos I could find!
If this is going to be your first tattoo, why not check out beardbrand’s amazing guide to tattoos for beginners?