How to Create a Unique Animal Tattoo

Animal tattoos are incredibly popular, which also means it’s very easy for them to start looking familiar.

Search for animal tattoo ideas online and you’ll find thousands of wolves, foxes, birds, snakes, hares and big cats. They are beautiful, but when you’re choosing something that will permanently become part of your body, beautiful isn’t always enough.

I think an animal tattoo should have personality, movement and a connection to the person wearing it.

I’m Lavale, a tattoo artist specialising in watercolour, abstract and nature inspired tattoos in Wiltshire, UK. Animals have always been one of my favourite subjects to tattoo because there are so many ways of interpreting them.

So how do you turn an animal you love into a tattoo that feels completely your own?

Start With the Animal, Not Someone Else’s Tattoo

One of the best places to start when planning a custom animal tattoo is with photographs of the actual animal rather than photographs of tattoos.

Tattoo references can be useful for showing the kind of style you like, but if we only look at other people’s tattoos, it becomes very easy to unconsciously recreate ideas that have already been done.

Its anatomy. The way it moves. The shape of its body. Its expression. The texture of feathers, fur, scales or wings.

A photograph of a bird turning its head or a fox curled into an unusual position might inspire a much more interesting tattoo than searching for “fox tattoo ideas”.

You don’t need to find one perfect photograph either. I can use several references to understand the animal and then create an original composition from them.

Think About What the Animal Is Doing

Pose can completely change an animal tattoo.

A static animal facing forwards creates a very different feeling from the same animal running, stretching, flying, turning or looking backwards.

Movement can also help the tattoo interact naturally with your body.

A bird’s wings might follow the shoulder. A snake can wrap around an arm or leg. The curve of an animal’s back can echo the shape of the ribs or hip.

This is one of the reasons I don’t design tattoos as isolated pictures and then simply place them onto the skin.

The body is part of the composition.

When I design custom animal tattoos, I consider how the tattoo will look when you are standing naturally and how its lines can work with the anatomy underneath it.

You Don’t Have to Show the Whole Animal

Sometimes what you leave out makes a tattoo more interesting.

An animal tattoo doesn’t necessarily need a perfectly outlined body containing every anatomical detail.

Parts of the animal can disappear into watercolour, brushwork, botanical elements or negative space. A wing can dissolve into colour. Fur can become expressive lines. Flowers can grow through a composition rather than sitting separately beside it.

Your brain naturally completes missing information, which can make a partially abstract animal tattoo feel more dynamic than a completely literal representation.

This combination of recognisable detail and abstraction is something I particularly love exploring in my work.

Personality Matters More Than Perfection

If the animal has a personal connection to you, tell your tattoo artist about it.

Maybe you love hares because you constantly see them where you live. Perhaps a particular bird reminds you of someone. Maybe you’ve always been fascinated by whales, moths or snakes and don’t really know why.

And if it’s your own pet, personality becomes even more important.

A pet tattoo doesn’t necessarily have to be a traditional realistic portrait. Sometimes the way your dog holds its ears, your cat’s characteristic expression or a particular sleeping position captures them far better than a formal portrait ever could.

Those little details are often what transform an animal tattoo from simply depicting a species into depicting your animal.

Let Colour Do Something

Colour doesn’t have to stay inside the animal.

That is particularly important in my style of watercolour animal tattoos.

I often use colour as another element of the composition: creating movement, balancing the placement or connecting different parts of the tattoo.

It might suggest feathers without drawing every feather. It might extend beyond the body of the animal or contrast with very precise black details.

And the colours don’t necessarily need to be realistic.

A tattoo can still unmistakably read as a fox, bird or hare without using the colours you would find in nature.

That freedom is where animal tattoos can become much more artistic.

Bring the Animal’s Environment Into the Design

If you want a larger or more detailed animal tattoo, think beyond the animal itself.

Its natural environment can provide some of the most beautiful elements for a composition.

Wildflowers, grasses, leaves, branches, water, fungi and other botanical details can give context to an animal without turning the tattoo into a literal landscape.

They can also help create flow.

Instead of having an animal sitting in the middle with flowers placed around it, I prefer to think about the whole tattoo as one composition.

A stem might lead your eye towards the animal. Leaves might follow the shape of the body. Abstract marks or colour might suggest the landscape without actually illustrating it.

The result feels much more organic.

Meaning Doesn’t Have to Come From a Symbolism Guide

People often search for the meaning behind animal tattoos.

What does a wolf tattoo mean? What does a fox symbolise? What does a swallow represent?

There’s nothing wrong with being interested in traditional symbolism, but you don’t need to choose an animal because the internet says it represents strength, freedom or transformation.

Your reason can be much simpler.

You can choose an animal because you grew up seeing it. Because it reminds you of a place. Because you love its shape. Because you have always felt strangely drawn to it.

Or simply because you think it’s beautiful.

Personal meaning is usually far more interesting than a definition copied from a symbolism guide.

Placement Can Transform an Animal Tattoo

The same design can look completely different depending on where it is placed.

Long, flowing animals can work beautifully with limbs. Wider compositions can interact with the shoulder blade, thigh or torso. Smaller creatures can sit within areas of the body where their natural shape already makes sense.

This is why I recommend being open to discussing placement rather than deciding that a design must be an exact size in an exact position before the design process has even started.

Sometimes moving a tattoo a few centimetres or changing its angle completely transforms it.

A custom tattoo should look as though it belongs on your body, not as though a rectangular piece of artwork has been stuck onto it.

Give Your Tattoo Artist Something to Interpret

There is a balance between giving your artist useful information and designing the entire tattoo yourself.

Say which animal you want. Show what attracts you to it.

Say whether you prefer something delicate, dramatic, colourful, abstract, botanical or full of movement.

Show photographs and artwork you love.

Then leave some room for interpretation.

If every flower, splash, line, colour and centimetre of the design has already been dictated, there isn’t much opportunity left for the artist to actually create.

Some of my favourite animal tattoos have started with surprisingly simple briefs.

An animal. A feeling. A few references.

And enough creative freedom to turn those ingredients into something designed specifically for that person.

Looking for a Custom Animal Tattoo Artist?

I create bespoke animal tattoos combining watercolour, abstract elements, fine details, botanical inspiration and designs that work naturally with the body.

Whether you already know exactly which animal you want or you simply have the beginning of an idea, we can develop it into something personal together.

If you’re looking for a custom animal tattoo, watercolour animal tattoo or nature inspired tattoo in Wiltshire or are happy to travel for the right artist, you can view more of my animal tattoo work and get in touch through my website.

LaVale

Watercolour & Abstract Tattoo Artist

Wiltshire, UK