Sleeve Designs – Hot Tattoo Designs and Ideas For Men and Women

Tattoo sleeves are very popular and now more and more people are going to their local tattoo shop to get sleeved.  However, they can be a big undertaking and a big commitment.  It should be planned for carefully so the person ends up with the design they always dreamed of and now just something thrown together in bits and pieces.

What Size Do You Want?

One of the first things to consider is to really nail down the size of the design.  That’s right there are a variety of sizes that a sleeve tattoo can be.  Most typically when a person says sleeve tattoo it brings images of a full sleeve design.  However, there are other sizes and the size should be chosen carefully.

Full Sleeve – As mentioned above this is the classic sleeve tattoo that everyone thinks of.  It spans from the wrist just a little above where a man’s dress shirt would fall or above your watch area.  Then it goes up the arm to the shoulder and stops there.  It most typically stops right where the hem in a t-shirt is that connect the sleeve to the rest of the shirt.  However, in some designs people go past this into a shoulder or chest tattoo.  This is especially popular with something like a dragon coming up the sleeve and onto the chest.

Half Sleeve – A half sleeve tattoo typically goes from the shoulder down to the elbow area and wraps all the way around of course like a full sleeve.  The only difference is it stops earlier.  The over space is smaller and so the design is a little bit easier to complete and often costs less.

Quarter Sleeve  – This is sometimes confused or spoken of in different ways.  However, it is most commonly referred to a quarter sleeve when you tattoo the areas from the elbow down to the wrist or from the wrist up to the elbows depending on how you look at it.  One of the most common quarter sleeve tattoo designs that you see or flames that go around the wrist and then come up the arm to the elbow for example.

The Design?

Once you have nailed down the size the next issue that comes up is the design.  Often people start with some ideas of what they want.

Be it a tribal design, traditional Japanese design such as a koi fish or whatever it might be.  Once you have the rough ideas of what you wan tto get then it is just a matter of collecting some resource materials.  You can find these easily in tattoo magazine, online or in real life.  Often the tattoo shop will have a ton of flash to gather ideas from also.  However, if you want to come in prepared then it is easy to do your research on the internet.  Find pictures of other people’s tattoos and also designs online that can be combined, mixed and matched to make a unique design.

The Artist

The last piece of the puzzle is finding a great tattoo artist and someone that will work with you on your project.  You want to explain exactly what you are looking for and show your resource samples of designs that you have already found that you would like to incorporate.  You are not in any way locked down to the designs but if you give the artist some examples to work from it makes their job or figuring out what you want much easier.  Be open to suggestions but consider them carefully also it is your tattoo so take time to think about it and don’t be indecisive.  Figure out what you want and clearly express this to your artist.  Most tattoo artists take pride in their work and want the customer to be happy with their design. After all it is like a big advertising sign to wear a tattoo.  If you had a good experience you will tell everyone who did the artwork and tattoo.