The critically accumulating pop culture anime icon of pop culture continues to be the subject of ink inspiration nearly three decades after its first release in the 1990s.
Originally a manga series created by artist Naoko Takeuchi, Sailor Moon was adapted into an extremely popular 1992 cartoon now considered one of the most popular anime titles in the world.
the original series, known in japan as “pretty soldier sailor moon,” ran for five years but has been reborn to admirers old and new in the digital era.
At its peak, Sailor Moon dominated prime-time weekend television, inspiring a legion of fans drawn to the show for its emphasis on friendship, innovative portrayal of the cast, and embrace of themes from the real world that integrate clever action scenes with broader concepts of sexuality, diversity, and coming of age.
As is often the case with anime titles crossing over into western culture, sailor moon merchandising exploded to the tune of over 5,000 related products, from the mundane to the extremely bizarre. It’s a popular theme for cosplayers, anime fans, and tattoo lovers who grew up with the show or loved it in later iterations of Sailor Moon.
Check out the gallery below for an amazing range of Sailor Moon tattoos rendered in a variety of styles and techniques, along with some helpful information for those new to the series, or the world of ink.
1. black line moon tattoos
These sailor moon tattoos are good examples of simple manga style images. These designs focus on using a variety of single needle techniques such as a flowing black line in a single line, standard black sharpie fill effects, geometric concepts such as symmetrical pattern and shape.
One or two of the sailor moon tattoos opt for circumspect technical dot applications, supporting the crisper black lines with subtlety.
2. watercolor sailor moon tattoos
These sailor moon tattoos work with finely etched watercolors, rather than the typical cartoonish use of flat, vivid color fill. these watercolor techniques are versatile: cleverly able to support a central figure inked in black and grey, or become the vibrant focal point of the artwork. These tattoos show a tremendous display of darker, more vivid watercolor colors or more delicate palettes that help to increase the different features and flow within the images.
3. delicate sailor moon tattoos
sailor moon, being an iconoclastic female-centric performance style, allows for a variety of different technical approaches to ink. the examples above work great at using delicate images and colors to support deeper black and gray shading. others show how tremendously detailed and finely crafted artwork can be delivered with smooth hands, clean lines, and outstanding use of form and space.
4. cartoon colored sailor moon tattoos
These examples are the traditional cartoon-style tattoos that your mind immediately links to classic shows like Sailor Moon, One Piece, or Full Metal Alchemist. they are shown by fusing bright colors between black or flowing colored lines and photorealistic aspects that make the tattoos appear lifted directly from the screen and onto the skin.
5. anime portrait sailor moon tattoos
There is great versatility in this range of sailor moon tattoo portraits. they use effective profiling to shape each image to reflect the differences between each portrayal of the ‘sailor’ characters. some opt for bold, brightly colored Neo-Traditional-style artwork, while others use the subtlety of shading and finely engraved supporting frames such as flowers, masks, or elaborate hairstyles to showcase the technical aspects of each piece.
6. technical sailor moon tattoos
I enjoy when pieces use their technical approach as a feature of the overall tattoo. Rather than being a byproduct of tattoo history, the application is central to the ink. Whether it’s fully saturated black ink highlights, extroverted new wave 3d, or the painstakingly precise delivery of colored pointillism, making the point to present technical work adds another layer of excellence to body art.
7. comic panel sailor moon tattoos
These sailor moon tattoos are a quality example of combining a solid black ink fill with single color fill effects to create comic book style vertical panel patterns. they also apply geometric concepts to shape each piece, using color in a similar way to how negative space applications support thick, heavy blocks of black ink in more traditional ink expressions.
8. black and gray sailor moon tattoos
These black and gray tattoos show the different methods you can use to take this approach. These sailor moon tattoos range from a simple grayscale shading to a heavier stippling tone, a balance of fine lines, and support of negative space. heavier, darker images cleverly employ white ink highlights to create an extra finishing touch or make an already detailed piece appear brighter and rounder.
sailor moon frequently asked questions
what is sailor moon anime about?
Sailor Moon begins when schoolgirl Usagi Tsukino befriends a talking cat named Luna. Luna gives Usagi an enchanted brooch that transforms her into Sailor Moon, a magical soldier whose destiny is to prevent Earth from being destroyed by Queen Beryl and her evil Dark Kingdom.
With the help of Luna, a boy at school known as Tuxedo Mask, and her own talking cat Artemis, Usagi gathers a group of new friends who also become sailor soldiers. Your goal is to find a celestial princess and the location of the legendary silver crystal before Queen Beryl can destroy the earth.
what made sailor moon such a popular cultural phenomenon?
There are a host of reasons for Sailor Moon’s enduring popularity that have only strengthened the show’s position as a pioneer in animated television and manga.
sailor moon turned familiar tropes on its head and brought a new paradigm (and a captivating high-spending audience) to anime, attracting more young women to the genre than any other title.
sailor moon was unique in her willingness to show strength, depth, and feminine nuances in character development, appearance, and skill. manga and anime have traditionally been male-dominated, often showing female characters as plot devices linked to male leads or obvious objects of attraction.
Another factor in Sailor Moon’s continued longevity is its daily embrace of serious issues and themes, such as homosexuality, diversity and inclusion, while continuing to engage with the different personalities of young people around the world.
sailor moon was strongly committed to lgbtqi issues and awareness (almost unknown in japan in the 1990s), featuring openly gay characters and storylines that dealt with themes of inclusion and alienation. its worldwide release was heavily edited to be more in line with cultural conservatism, but has since been released in its original form.
