How to Get a Day of the Dead Tattoo

Over the last few years, Day of the Dead symbols have seeped their way into pop culture, becoming a popular subject for tattoos. Colorful skulls and Chicano inspired religious symbols dominant most Day of the Dead tattoos. If you are thinking about getting a Day of the Dead tattoo, start by exploring some popular motifs of the holiday.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Design
• Tattoo artist

Choose a Design for Your Day of the Dead Tattoo

1. Decide if you want to include skulls in your tattoo. While skulls are closely associated with the Day of the Dead in Mexico, they are also quite common in tattoos. If you want to get something more unique, you may want to look for less common symbols to use.

2. Settle on the style of tattoo you want. Decide if you want a folk art inspired design, a cartoon style, a traditional Sailor Jerry inspired look or something a bit darker. Almost any style works well with a Day of the Dead tattoo, especially if you choose to use a skull as the basis of your design.

3. Determine if you want a colorful tattoo or a black and white tattoo. Surprisingly, the colors you choose for your design influence the overall style of the tattoo. Most Day of the Dead tattoos have several bright colors, but beautiful designs exist in black and gray as well.

4. Try to work Day of the Dead elements into an original design. Plenty of flash (pre-designed tattoo art) designs exist, but remember that those designs are used over and over again on several people.

5. Think about the permanence of the tattoo. Any ink you get on your body now remains there for the rest of your life. While green flaming skulls seem like a good idea now, try to think about how you'll feel about them in twenty years.

6. Find a tattoo artist that does Day of the Dead tattoos on a regular basis. The more experience the artist has with the style of tattoo you want, the better yours will turn out. Talk to several tattoo artists before deciding on one.

Tips & Warnings

• If you can't think of design or aren't artistically inclined, ask the tattoo artist to draw you a Day of the Dead inspired design. The more an artist invests in a design, the better the end product usually is.
• Flash tattoos usually cost less than custom tattoos. With a custom design, the artist charges by the hour or sets a price beforehand.