Most Badass Tattoos You’ll Ever See

According to the Urban Dictionary, a pretty badass website in itself,  the definition of  badass tattoos is, and I quote, “Ultra cool.” These are our favorite badass tattoos.

Other words to sum up general badassness are, according to the dictionary; awesome, cool, sexy, amazing, sweet, hardcore, kickass and epic. You get the picture. BADASS. Now, when we’re talking tats, badass pretty much is the norm. What’s more badass than a sweet tattoo, huh? But there are levels of badassery. Some tatoos are obviously more badass than others. Here is our comprehensive list of what we think are the most badass tattoos out there on the internets today. Enjoy.

 

1. Awesome Upper Arm

Holy guacamole! If you want to know what badass is, check this out. If I was this guy I’d be wearing a tank top – or going shirtless – 24/7! I would just HAVE to be showing this off. This makes this guys arm look like carved granite. Cool, hard, untouchable and totally badass. You just know that a guy with this tattoo is the coolest one in the room, and that no-one would be taking their eyes off of him. You just know it. The very definition of a badass tattoo right here right now.

2. Badass Senior Citizen

Ever stopped to wonder what badass tattoos will look like when you’re old? That’s easy. They’ll look badass, that’s what! Check out this cool, cool, older lady right here. Oozing confidence and sass. You just know she’s got some stories to tell. That looks like a jungle scene that she has on her back, there. All we can say is that is just wild. Wild and cool equals badass.

3. Another Bad Ass Senior Citizen

4. Breaking Bad

So what’s the most badass TV show of the last, I dunno, 20 years? Well there’s been a few, granted. “Game of Thrones”, “Mad Men”, “The Sopranos”… Yeah, all of these come close, but don’t really touch the badass magic that was “Breaking Bad”. Walter White and Jesse Pinkman could well be two of the most iconic characters of the 21st century, and what better way to honor them than by having their faces inked onto your arm, chemical symbols and all. The artwork on this tattoo is amazing, just utilizing black ink and nothing else. What badass TV or move character do you think is worth getting tattooed onto your skin?

5. Horror Movie-esque Badassness

Not really sure if this is badass or creepy. You get the feeling that a cartoon villain from an old Scooby Doo show would have this tattoo – you know, chasing those pesky kids with his arms stretched out mummy-style. Say what? Weird imagery aside, this is actually a cool tattoo. The owner of this tattoo will get asked constant questions about this, which makes it badass as hell in a creepy way.

6. Neck Tattoo

There is officially nothing more badass than a neck tattoo. It takes a special kind of badass to get one. Unless you’re wearing a polar neck sweater for the rest of your life, a neck tattoo says “I’m here and I’m badass”. You know that to be the truth. But there’s no rule saying that neck tattoos can’t be beautiful. They don’t all have to look like they were done by your cellmate with a homemade tattoo gun made from a pen. No sir. This beautiful swallow design represents a fitting tribute to the wearer’s father. Perhaps his father was a traveler, or he’s just gone “to a better place”. The fact that this is on his neck means that he wants the world to see for all time how much this tattoo means to him. That’s badass.

7. A Black Crow

Bird tats are always awesome. Birds represent flight and freedom. This piece, in plain badass black ink, stretches from the forearm all the way up to the shoulder and around to the chest. I bet it reaches over to the guy’s back and shoulder as well, and probably creates some illusion of movement when he moves. Badass tattoo for sure, 100%.

8. Crows again

Not sure what this is or what it’s meant to represent. But that’s okay. It’s still badass, in at least the awesome, cool and amazing sense. There must be some story to it. Is it a military thing? I have no idea although I suspect that it might be. Sometimes we don’t need to know. Not knowing doesn’t make it less badass. In fact, it kind of makes it more so. Doesn’t it?

9. Badass Quote

The message itself here is badass. Badassness, as we discussed, is all about awesomeness, coolness, sexiness, amazingness, sweetness, hardcoreness, kickassness and epicness. A heck of a lot of “nesses”. And what could be more any of those things, any more badass, than the celebration of life itself? “Have the courage to live. Anyone can die.” What a badass message. Message aside, the tattoo itself is pretty nifty. Love the typeface up and down the back of the arm. Amazing tattoo. What other badass quotes can you think of?

10. Guns ‘n’ Girls

Yeah yeah yeah. I know. But listen, it’s impossible to talk badassness without touching on chicks with guns. Or at least chicks with tattoos of guns underneath a thigh garter. Sexist? Maybe. Sexy? Abso-damn-lutely! This tattoo, although pretty simply designed, shows off a badass attitude that you know will make her a fun person to go out for beers with. And if you’re very very lucky, maybe she’ll show you the tat in real life. We can but dream.

11. More Guns ‘n’ Girls

12. Shark on Finger

Just like neck tattoos, finger tattoos are automatically badass because unless you’re gonna permanently wear mittens, then your piece of ink is going to be out there, up front and personal for all the world to see, no matter what. It takes a certain badass attitude to pull that off. So we have a badass part of the body, now we need a badass fish to put on it. Nothing more badass than a great white shark. The detail in this piece is actually pretty amazing, given the size of the finger.

13. Stay True

And staying on the badass finger theme, check this out. What is so great about this tattoo is that unlike most finger tattoos, this one isn’t doing it like one finger per letter like you usually see. Instead, both hands, fingers closed together, form the canvas to this piece of art. Open her fingers, the tattoo won’t make any sense. It only makes sense when the fingers are closed and the hands are put together like you see. Awesome badass tattoo!

14. The Hammer of Thor

Out of all the ancient Norse Gods, Thor was surely the most badass. The God of Storms. It was said that thunder was the sound of Thor striking his hammer against the anvil. Anyway enough of that. We don’t even know if this tattoo is even meant to be Thor’s. Pure speculation on our part. What we do know is that the use of UV link, looking like lightening or static around the hammer makes this tattoo come alive and look absolutely as cool as if it was on Thor himself.

15. Wolf Tat

Oh my. Just look at the intricacy and attention to detail on this. A true piece of art. The lone wolf symbolism describes one who acts alone – a true free spirit or independent. This tattoo perfectly sums up that sentiment and for us, that more than qualifies it to badass status.

16. A lightbulb

Okay, normally a tattoo of a common household appliance or item such as a toaster, toilet paper holder or, in this case, a light bulb, wouldn’t make it anywhere NEAR to badass status. I mean what the hell is badass about something that you can buy in Walmart or Home Depot on a Saturday afternoon? Exactly. But in this instance, we’ll make an exception. Look at this amazing light bulb. Admire the vividness of the colors again the natural tone of the skin. Check the “ink blots” (for want of a better description) in the background. And now tell us that this isn’t a badass tattoo. Wait. What’s that you said? Just what we thought. You can’t.

17. Keith Haring World Man Sleeve

Even if you didn’t know that Keith Haring was one of the coolest artists of the late 20th century, a regular on that late 70’s/early 80s New York club scene, famous for his graffiti-inspired artwork and progressive social stances, you’d still have to think that this tattoo, made up of Haring’s “World Men” characters, was pretty damn amazing. We don’t get to see much below the elbow in this picture, but I hope hope hope that it’s a full sleeve. That would be badass as hell.

18. Yet another badass bird

The badassness of this tattoo is without question. Everyone knows that. Eagles are badass and that’s the end of the story. But check out the uniqueness of this piece. It’s a true work of art and could be sprayed onto a canvas as easily as inked onto this guy. The effect of the “dripping paint” running away from the work itself is simply quite spellbinding. This guy seriously has a tattoo on him to be truly proud of.

19. SuicideGirl

The SuicideGirls thing is pretty badass. A community of cool, confident chicas looking like they come from outside of the norm. Whatever the “norm” is. So this girl has a lot going for her already. But add in those dreads and then, of course, that badass back tattoo and you have the full package right there. What grabs me with this tattoo, is that purple sky. For some reason that draws me in a lot more than if the sky was another color. Don’t know why. And the fruit. Is that fruit on the bottom right? A pineapple? Oh wait. No, it’s a marijuana plant. Badass.

20. Zip it up

And while we’re talking about back tattoos, check this out, too.