Tattoo Placement

One of the beautiful things about custom tattoos is how the placement can accent body shape. When designing a tattoo, especially a big one, we take a tracing of the area you’re getting tattooed that maps out where your muscles are. This way the artist can compose a design that flows with your muscles and accents your body shape, with specific designing and placement. It may sound like a small detail but placement can change the look of the tattoo drastically: from beautiful framing to a warped image. 

Good placement can be as simple as framing the shoulder properly, or as complex as creating flow in full body suits. Organic shapes create flow and movement so they’re used a lot in tattoos, we are organic beings so using complementary shapes are an important part of any composition. It’s amazing how the shape of a tattoo can work with or against body shape and change the look of muscle groups. Some people even get tattooed for the purpose of highlighting or playing with body shape, these can be abstract or within the composition of a regular image tattoo. 

Left: Bio-mech by Chris, he uses the curve of the main hooked tentacle to follow this client’s bicep line, while curving it over to flow in with the top of the shoulder. This is a great example of using composition and placement to give the best looking tattoo. Top right: A stonework logo piece by Loren, though this is a logo so it’s somewhat predesigned she has the bats wings and the snake that make a nice arch so placing it close to the top of the shoulder creates that nice cap on the shoulder and fills the space really well; this is a great example of how sizing can impact a piece. If it were any smaller it would not compliment the shape of the shoulder as well. Bottom right: A Pinterest example of complimentary back placement.

Another important part of placement is sizing. A lot of people recently have wanted very small work. Smaller pieces have their place and are super fun to do and get but sometimes the larger version would actually fit the body better. There are a lot of factors that go into deciding the size of the tattoo you’d like, such as pain tolerance or budget. Don’t be afraid to go big though! We have large, elongated muscles so often going with a larger size will create more flow with the body and over all the tattoo is more flattering because it has that complimentary shape to the muscle it sits on.

A personal favourite of mine is the triangle shape on a women’s lower back to frame in the hips. I’ve seen these as stand alone pieces and on a larger scale, worked into a back piece. Though placement can technically be wherever you want, there is a certain way that artists look at it to design and place the tattoo so it looks its best and compliments your body. A typical one you have probably seen is on the side of a shoulder/bicep. Usually rounded shapes flow best with this area, which is a more obvious one but this concept is applied in any tattoo placement. Things like which shape works best with that body part or muscle group can heavily influence the design composition and layout to give you the best looking tattoo to go with your body.

Above: 2 pieces by Bryan. Left: A deer, the antlers fit right around her existing piece on the front of the thigh while also framing the top of her leg really beautifully. This is another example where sizing is important, this would not look as beautiful and hold the space that it does if it were any smaller and the framing wouldn’t be as flattering as it is with the bigger size. Right: A symmetrical neck piece

Good placement is especially evident when you start collecting a lot of tattoos. The way they can fit together is so satisfying but there’s also the matter of placing tattoos in such a way that they’re less likely to intrude on future pieces. If a tattoo is placed well on it’s own it should be in line with the body and sit naturally, that makes it easier to work around and add onto in the future. A good example of this is symmetry. In certain areas having a symmetrical placement and design can make all the difference. As humans we are fairly symmetrical and working with that can make a tattoo look more natural on the body, like necks for instance. A tattoo should look as if it’s meant to be there, a lot of that depends on skilled placement.

Gatekeeper

Hi there! I'm Taylor, you may know me as Sterling Skull reception, or gatekeeper, or most recently Tater (thanks Chris). I love writing, creating and I love tattoos; so what better way to use my passions than to bring you a personal experience of our studio via a blog! Welcome, please stay a while!