Tattoos are, obviously, the permanent marking of an area of the skin in either word or image form. Far more than that though, tattoos are a visible expression of your individual style, personality and likes and if you are all about skull tattoos, then continue reading. 

Here are the best places to go for ideas and inspiration for a new skull tattoo. 

Your Favorite Fashion Brand

Your natural sense of style and the images and prints you are drawn to in clothing and accessories are likely to feature skull motifs in some form or another. 

Open your wardrobe and pick out any item with a skull design and with your smartphone, take photographs of the intricacies in certain parts of the fabric and imagery which you are really drawn to. Creating an album on your smartphone of designs and imagery will help you to build a picture of how you want your new skull ink design to look. 

Avoid Skull Design Tropes

Secondly, as with any tattoo you choose to have, even if you utterly adored a skull tattoo design on a celebrity, or else seen one in a famous tattoo artist’s portfolio in the past, you should avoid copying such generic imagery at all costs. 

Skull ink tropes to stay away from, providing you are looking for a personal and unique design, include such imagery as the following:

• Roses weaved through the skull
• Top hat and smoking cigarette
• Plain black outline with either green or red eye sockets
• Skull jaw outline on the back of the hand
• Snakes wrapped around the head

In order to stay away from having a tattoo which everyone else has and instead having a more unique image, talk to your friends and family as to what they have experienced to be ‘normal’ and ‘expected’ tattoos. Why not make a night of it and book a table at a traditional curry house, such as urban-tandoor.com, where you can discuss your ideas and get inspiration from the people you love on where to take your new tattoo plans. 

The Animal World

For some people searching for ideas for their next skull tattoo, an animal skull simply is not something they would even consider, especially as an animal lover.

However, far from celebrating a dead animal, an expertly designed animal skull tattoo can actually be a celebration and respectful tribute to the animal kingdom. For example, a Mexican themed crystal bull’s skull can be a beautiful and mesmerizing piece of imagery. 

Another beautiful example of an animal skull tattoo is that of a bear’s head, which many mothers choose to have to symbolize how fiercely they will protect their children against any and all danger. 

Animals act on pure instinct and as a result some people who choose to have an animal skull rather than a human one are focused on survival, and have often been through a traumatic incident at some point in time. 

Symbolism, Imagery & Personal Meaning

Just the same as with any ink you elect to have permanently etched onto your skin, inspiration should essentially be drawn from your own core values, beliefs and most intense passions. 

As such, when experimenting with different colors, motifs, sizes and themes, draw ideas from where you currently are in your life, where you have been and most prominent of all, where you would like to go.