Skulls, moons, Silent Hill and Star Wars: ideas when nothing clicks yet

Symbol pieces like barbed wire, sugar skulls and moon phases, fan tattoos from horror films, anime and games, plus traditional, stick poke and negative space styles to compare.

Grim reaper skull and red rose traditional tattoo on a person's forearm

Keep a design on your phone's lock screen for a month.

If you still like it after seeing it every day for weeks, that says more than any list of meanings can.

Jamie P. Slater

Who sorts all this

Until an artist's past work shows 3 or more pieces in the style I'm after, my message waits. In a tattoo artist's inbox or a doctor's office, I'm the one asking questions, not answering them, and the name Jamie P. Slater is invented. Make sure your artist holds any license your state requires and opens sealed needles in front of you. Character names and symbol meanings are easy to get wrong, and [email protected] takes fixes for both.

Where to dig next

Sun and crescent moon tattoo with clouds on a person's forearm

Symbol Tattoos

Skulls, moon phases, storm clouds, lightning, hearts, eyes and playing cards, with what each one signals.

Deathly Hallows symbol tattoo on a forearm entwined with shaded roses and flowers.

Pop Culture Tattoos

Harry Potter, Dragon Ball, One Piece, Silent Hill, Tim Burton and classic slasher villains.

Tattoo of a Japanese folding fan with cherry blossoms in red and black ink.

Tattoo Ideas

Style-first ideas: traditional, dark traditional, realism, stick poke, negative space and gold ink.

Forearm with a black geometric band tattoo featuring a central knot design.

Bands Around the Arm

21 bands: Maori and Celtic patterns, geometric wraps, skulls, tiger stripes and floral rings.