16 Iconic Anime Characters With Tattoos (Ranked)

Anime is full of iconic ink, from guild stamps that mark a found family to full-body pieces that carry a character’s whole history.

Some of the best anime characters with tattoos wear their story on their skin, whether it is Portgas D. Ace’s crossed-out brotherhood, Uta’s Latin neck script, or Trafalgar Law’s blunt DEATH knuckles.

Japan once tied tattoos tightly to crime, but the art has steadily warmed into the mainstream, and anime has followed.

These days a character’s ink can say as much about them as their weapon does.

From Symbols to Serpents: The Coolest Tattoos in Anime

From delicate markings to sprawling sleeves, tattoos in anime are never just decoration. They flag a character’s loyalty, their power, their past, or the darkness they are trying to outrun. The stories behind the ink are often the most memorable thing about the design.

Anime characters with tattoos turn up in every genre, from pirate epics to slice-of-life dramas.

The Best Tattooed Anime Characters

These are the most iconic anime characters with tattoos in the medium, from cult favorites up to the single most recognizable piece of ink in the genre.

Tatsumi Oga – Beelzebub

Tatsumi Oga is the delinquent student at the center of Beelzebub, saddled with raising a demon baby who happens to boost his strength. One day a strange mark simply appears on his hand.

My take: a tiny hand seal that fans love enough to ink on themselves, which is a fitting loop.

The ink: the Zebul Spell on the back of his right hand, the contract seal binding him to the demon child Beelzebub. It spreads further up his arm as his demonic power grows.

Shura Kirigakure – Blue Exorcist

Shura Kirigakure is the brash, skilled exorcist who trains Rin in Blue Exorcist. Her body art is more than decoration, since it doubles as a weapon store.

My take: a sword hidden inside a tattoo might be the coolest use of ink on this whole list.

The ink: a magic tattoo across her body that seals her demon-slaying sword, Kurikara, which she can draw straight out of her own skin when a fight starts.

Zero Kiryu – Vampire Knight

Zero Kiryu is a vampire hunter slowly turning into the very thing he hunts, which is the central tragedy of Vampire Knight. The mark on his neck is a constant reminder of that fight.

My take: a neck mark that reminds him what he is trying not to become, every single day.

The ink: a dark hunter’s seal on the left side of his neck, tied to the vampire hunters’ hold over him and the vampire blood he is fighting to suppress.

Medusa – Soul Eater

Medusa is one of the coldest villains in Soul Eater, a witch whose whole theme is snakes and hidden venom. Crona’s mother turns her body art into an arsenal.

My take: tattoos that literally fire off as weapons are a fun twist on the trope.

The ink: arrow-shaped magic markings running along her arms, tied to her snake magic and her Vector Arrow spells, which she launches as blades and projectiles.

Revy – Black Lagoon

Revy is the trigger-happy gunfighter at the heart of Black Lagoon, and her look is as hard-edged as her body count. The tattoo is half her silhouette.

My take: the shoulder piece fits the meanest gun in the show perfectly.

The ink: a bold black tribal piece wrapping her right shoulder and upper arm, part of the tough, weathered image she wears like armor.

Juuzou Suzuya – Tokyo Ghoul

Juuzou Suzuya is the eccentric, deadly investigator whose childlike energy hides a horrifying past. His body reads like a record of it.

My take: stitches as body art are unsettling in exactly the way the character wants.

The ink: red stitch-like tattoos threaded across his body, echoing the literal stitching and scars left by the abuse he survived.

Ban – The Seven Deadly Sins

Ban is the immortal, easygoing thief of the Seven Deadly Sins, driven by a single devotion that defines his whole arc. His mark ties him to the group.

My take: one small sin emblem doing a lot of character work in very little space.

The ink: the Fox’s Sin of Greed emblem, the beast symbol that brands him as a member of the Seven Deadly Sins, matched to his greed for the one thing he cannot keep.

Mugen – Samurai Champloo

Mugen is the wild, breakdancing swordsman of Samurai Champloo, a series that fuses Edo-period Japan with hip-hop. His ink hints at a rough life before the show even starts.

My take: convict tattoos that double as a whole backstory, no exposition needed.

The ink: tribal bands ringing both wrists and running up his arms, the kind of markings used to brand exiles and criminals from the Ryukyu Islands he comes from.

Uta – Tokyo Ghoul

Uta is the calm, unsettling mask maker of Tokyo Ghoul, and he is the most heavily inked of the anime characters with tattoos here. His body is a canvas from the neck down.

My take: the most committed ink in anime, and that Latin neck quote is the detail that sells him.

The ink: near-total body coverage plus a Latin phrase across his neck, “Nec tecum nec sine te vivere possum,” which translates to “I can live neither with you nor without you.”

Scar – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Scar is the vengeful Ishvalan survivor of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, hunting the alchemists who destroyed his people. The tattooed arm he fights with was not even born his.

My take: an arm that can destroy or rebuild, inked by the brother who gave it, is about as heavy as tattoo lore gets.

The ink: intricate alchemical arrays covering the right arm grafted onto him by his dying brother. The tattoos let him unleash destruction with a touch.

Renji Abarai – Bleach

Renji Abarai is the hot-headed Soul Reaper of the popular anime Bleach who claws his way up from the poorest slums of the Soul Society. His tattoos grew right alongside him.

My take: ink that keeps crawling further up his body every time we see him age is a quiet bit of great design.

The ink: bold black tribal tattoos running over his brow, neck, shoulders, and torso. They are a personal style he extended over the years, not a power he gained.

Gray Fullbuster – Fairy Tail

Gray Fullbuster is the cool, shirt-shedding ice wizard of Fairy Tail and one of its strongest mages. His guild mark is the tattoo fans line up to copy.

My take: the guild mark is the icon, but the devil-slayer markings are the deeper cut.

The ink: the dark Fairy Tail guild emblem on his right chest. Later, as an Ice Devil Slayer, black devil-slayer markings spread across his body when he taps that power.

Natsu Dragneel – Fairy Tail

Natsu Dragneel is the fire-breathing, pink-haired heart of Fairy Tail, and his loyalty to the guild is his whole personality. He wears that loyalty on his shoulder.

My take: a guild stamp counts as ink, and few marks say “found family” louder than this one.

The ink: the red Fairy Tail guild emblem on his right shoulder, the symbol every member wears to mark their place in the guild.

Hisoka – Hunter x Hunter

Hisoka is the grinning, bloodthirsty wildcard of Hunter x Hunter, a killer who infiltrates a legendary thieves’ guild for fun. His tattoo marks his place in that crew.

My take: hiding a spider tattoo under his stage makeup is peak Hisoka.

The ink: a Phantom Troupe spider stamped with the number 4, marking his rank in the thirteen-member syndicate. The teardrop and star on his face are makeup, not tattoos.

Trafalgar D. Water Law – One Piece

Law is the Surgeon of Death, a pirate captain and trained doctor whose past is knotted up with the Donquixote Family. His ink leans into the surgeon theme hard.

My take: the DEATH knuckles fit a man who fights by taking people apart and putting them back wrong.

The ink: the word DEATH inked one letter per finger across his hands, plus tribal black tattoos climbing both arms and the Heart Pirates smile on his shoulders.

Portgas D. Ace – One Piece

Ace, the sworn older brother of Luffy, carries the most quietly devastating tattoo in One Piece. It looks like a spelling mistake until you know the story.

My take: still the most recognizable tattoo in anime, and the crossed-out S wrecks you once you understand it.

The ink: “ASCE” down his left arm with the S struck through, spelling ACE in honor of his late sworn brother Sabo. Across his back he wears the Whitebeard Pirates’ Jolly Roger.

Popular Anime Symbols People Get Tattooed

Plenty of fans skip the characters and ink the symbols instead. These are some of the most popular anime emblems that turn up in real tattoo studios:

Straw Hat Pirates’ Jolly Roger (One Piece) – the grinning skull in a straw hat that represents Luffy’s crew.
Fairy Tail guild emblem (Fairy Tail) – the fairy-tail crest that stands for the whole guild’s bond.
Hidden Leaf Village symbol (Naruto) – the leaf spiral of Konohagakure.
Flamel and transmutation circles (Fullmetal Alchemist) – the alchemy symbols, including the Flamel cross the Elric brothers wear.
Survey Corps Wings of Freedom (Attack on Titan) – the blue-and-white wings representing humanity’s hope.
Soul Eater sun and moon (Soul Eater) – the series’ grinning sun and moon faces.
Dragon Balls (Dragon Ball) – the seven star-marked orbs that summon Shenron.
Sharingan (Naruto) – the red-and-black Uchiha eye.
Lelouch’s Geass (Code Geass) – the red, bird-shaped sigil of the power of the king.
Sailor Moon’s crescent (Sailor Moon) – the crescent moon of the magical-girl transformation.
Ghibli icons (Studio Ghibli) – Totoro, No-Face, the soot sprites, and other Ghibli staples.
Ghoul mask (Tokyo Ghoul) – Kaneki’s stitched mask, shorthand for the human-ghoul divide.

From a crossed-out S to a Latin neck script, the best anime characters with tattoos prove that a good piece of ink can carry an entire backstory.

The design is never random, it is character work you can see.

So whose tattoo would you get inked on yourself?

Drop your pick in the comments, and the best answers might headline the next update.