Tattoo Simplicity: cat tattoo

Cartoon tattoo designs are often based on popular comic or cartoon characters. These characters are fairly common as tattoo designs, so for a more unique, personalized tattoo design, customers will sometimes ask the tattoo artist for an original cartoon tattoo.

Toon Tats
Most cartoon tattoos have clear outlines and solid areas of color. These kinds of designs are easier to ink into the skin than designs with intricate detail or shading. This means the resulting body art is often of a high quality. Most cartoon tattoo designs use one character, with little or nothing in the background. This gives the image a clearly defined silhouette.

Above: A cute baby bat cartoon tattoo, for a humorous gothic effect. The clear outlines and crisp edges makes the tattoo really stand out.

Above: A cartoon bird design with a graffiti tattoo influence. By using a few subtle highlights and shadows, the tattoo artist has given an otherwise flat tattoo depth and interest.

Above: A cute cartoon character with the typical cartoon design elements of big, shiny eyes and a cute little smile.

Above: A cartoon cat tattoo design. The tattoo artist has highlighted parts of the cartoon kitty to give this design more definition.

Cartoon Tattoo Designs

Cartoon tattoos are often colorful and interesting to look at. Unlike many tattoo designs, cartoon tats have no distinct meaning or symbolism, other than that the wearer of the tattoo liked the cartoon character.

Above: These cute characters have been influenced by cartoons, but the style is 3D, using careful shading to smooth out the characters. See Kelly Doty's best tattoo designs.

Above: This geeky gecko tattoo makes a humorous body art piece. The tattoo artist has added shadows to create the illusion that the gecko is perched on top of the skin.

Above: Big eyes and a large head are two popular character design techniques that cartoon artists use. The tattoo artist has uses soft shading in flesh tones to mimic human skin, a tricky effect to achieve on skin of a similar color.

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There seems to be skin-deep relationship between cats and tattoos. There are hundreds of cat tattoo designs available, and it would seem, hundreds of cats with tattoos.

Tattoos of Cats

Cat tattoo designs are not uncommon in the world of skin ink. This popular pet has found its way into a variety of different tattoo styles, from photorealism to funny. Tattoos of cats often have a personal meaning to the owner of the tattoo; sometimes it is a treasured pet, a favorite cartoon character or simply the symbolism of cats. The symbolism of cats varies from one culture to the next, though broadly speaking, cats symbolize hunting, guardianship and a relationship with the night or darkness.
Cats can be humorous creatures, as proven by the popular website, LOLcats. Their curiosity, attitude and often playful nature make them a popular choice for tattoo designs.

Tattoos on Cats

Sphynx cats are a hairless breed of cat. In the Austin Powers movies, Dr Evil is depicted as owning a sphynx cat, which is as bald as he is. Because of the hairless nature of their skin, sphynx cats are now becoming a prime canvas for tattoo artists. Is this animal cruelty, or is it art? Read Animal Owners Tattoo Their Pets for more information on tattooing animals. You can read more about animal tattooing in Animal Owners Tattoo their Pets.

Above: This is Mickey, a rare Canadian Hairless cat, who lives in Moscow, Russia. Mickey’s owner had him sedated for three hours while an image of King Tut was tattooed onto his chest.

Above: Tattooing animals is becoming quite a trend in Russia, as there are few laws and regulations surrounding the treatment of animals.

Above: Like owner, like cat. Although cats are sedated when they being tattooed, animal rights groups believe that the act of tattooing animals is cruel.

Above: Tattooed sphynx cat being shown off by its owner at a tattoo festival. Unlike their human owners, cats don’t get to choose their tattoo designs. They also don’t get to choose whether they want a tattoo or not.

Human Cat Hybrids

As with all art forms, there are those who always take things one step too far. Several people have taken body modification to a new level, turning themselves in human animal hybrids. These body modification fanatics use tattoos, piercings, inserts and plastic surgery to transform their once-human bodies into a bizarre creature composites. Although several animals are used as the inspiration for body modification processes such as these, cats seem to be the most popular. None of the following images are photoshopped.