Travel tattoo
One occasion in depth: designs that mark it, and how to keep a set looking like a set.
A travel tattoo records a place — its coordinates, a landmark outline, a map fragment or something locally characteristic. The ones that stay legible are the symbolic ones: coordinates, a continent shape, an outline of a coastline or a building reduced to its silhouette. Photographic detail from a trip is the version that ages worst.
Size guide
Coordinate block: 6–10 cm wide. Continent or coastline outline: 8–20 cm. Small landmark silhouette: 5–12 cm.
Should a travel tattoo be coordinates or an image?
Coordinates, if you want it to stay meaningful indefinitely. An image of a view ages like any other illustration and often becomes vague — a skyline is unrecognisable within fifteen years as buildings change. A coordinate is fixed text, it costs the same to tattoo, and it never dates.
- Coordinates: never dates, fixed text
- Outline map or continent: reads clearly for decades
- Landmark silhouette: better than a detailed view
- Detailed scenic view: ages worst, avoid
How precise do travel coordinates need to be?
Four decimal places is plenty — that is about 11 metres, which is finer than the accuracy of the tattooed text itself. Six decimal places adds four characters and no meaning. Decimals should also be aligned in columns, because that is what makes a block of coordinates read as deliberate rather than as a string of numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Travel tattoo designs to browse
These motifs commonly appear in this style. Open one for its meaning and size guide.
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Sample designs
