Butterfly tattoos are a popular design choice and for good reason. Regarded as beautiful, delicate parts of nature, butterflies look great paired with the body’s natural form, no matter the placement.
Butterfly Tattoo
Plus, these designs are easily personalized, allowing you to create a truly unique piece of ink. If you’d rather play up the creatures’ intrinsic meanings instead, butterflies are known for symbolizing everything from freedom and transformation to delicate beauty.
Whatever your reason for wanting a butterfly tattoo, the most important part is to be sure of what you want it to look like. If you’re still searching for that perfect something,
Butterfly Hand Tattoo
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Don’t be alarmed, you’re not in church – this hand tattoo just happens to look like it was cut out of some stained glass. The muted colors work really well together in this blue and yellow butterfly.
Knee Butterfly Tattoo
The shape of the butterfly’s wings looks great around circular bones like the knee. Keep the design otherwise simple to play up the shape.
Blackwork Butterfly Tattoos with Flames
This artist went for a more stylized, cartoonish butterfly instead of a realistic approach. But the long, sharp edges of the butterfly wings work really well with the fire flames that are coming off of them. The stars act as some nice filler to bring the piece together.
Minimal Butterfly Tattoo
Butterflies are great design ideas because they can be stylized in a number of ways. If you prefer a minimal tattoo, stick to a few lines—maybe even just one—in your design.
Small, Delicate Black and Gray Butterfly Tattoo
Lena, the artist who performed this tattoo, has a portfolio full of beautiful, feminine tattoo ideas. She’s into fine lines, light shading, and no color – one of the hottest trends of the last few years.
Placed behind the ear, butterfly tattoos gain a sense of playfulness, as they can only be seen from certain angles or when your hair is pulled back. The white detailing adds to the whimsical feeling as well.
Butterfly Tattoo
Because butterfly wings tend to be intricate, line art makes for a great style for this design. If you plan on adding a lot of lines, keep the decoration and coloring otherwise simple.
Purple Butterfly Rose Tattoo
The positioning of this tattoo on the front of the shoulder is very pretty. And it goes along well with the collarbone text tattoo.
This style of watercolor, where the colors are light and dabbed on instead of brushed is quite popular. This is an awesome rendition of a rose tattoo mixed with a butterfly.
Dynamic Butterfly Tattoo
Butterflies come in a variety of colors and designs, so they can easily match any aesthetic. This butterfly tattoo uses subtle shading and white ink to create a dynamic sense of light and dark.
Blackwork Moth Wrist Tattoo
Fans of blackwork tattoos regularly place them on their body in a sticker-like fashion. With this piece, the customer placed the moth tattoo in an untraditional way along their forearm, but even then it looks nice.
Shoulder Butterfly Tattoo
The shoulder blade is a great location for a butterfly tattoo, as the amount of surface area means you can make it any shape and size that you’d like. The extra space also allows you to add more drawn-out details, like the shadow under the butterfly in this design.
Butterfly Dagger Tattoo
Butterflies and daggers are both popular icons in the world of tattoos. And while you’d rarely ever associate them with each other, there’s nothing stopping you from mixing them together as this person did.
Arm Butterfly Tattoo
Placing a few butterflies along the arm gives the impression that they’re flying upward. Using a fine line style guarantees a sense of daintiness, and spacing out the butterflies adds to the weightlessness.
Red Butterflies Tattoo
Small, Colorful Butterflies Tattoo
Butterfly Tattoo
Geometric Butterfly Tattoo
Natural Butterfly Tattoo
Rather than opting for a straight butterfly design, why not combine it with another natural element? Here, the butterfly is combined with florals, giving the tattoo delicately powerful energy.
Black Watercolor Ink Butterfly Forearm Tattoo
More often than not, watercolor tattoos are done in color. In fact, it’s very rare to see this style done in all black – it kind of looks like a tribal butterfly design actually. The Korean artist did a very good job creating the watercolor effect while making sure the design didn’t become messy.
Weightless Butterfly Tattoo
Thick Butterfly Tattoo
Butterfly tattoos don’t have to be small and minimal. Adding heavy shading or bright colors can add some bold personality to the popular design choice.
Butterfly Tattoo with Dotwork Background
When comparing this tattoo to the ones surrounding it, you can see the importance of the frame in this design. By adding the circular background, the butterfly is elevated and made to look special. It’s a subtle touch, but a critical one. That is where talented artist separates themselves from the pack.
Pastel Butterfly Tattoo
Blackwork Butterfly Tattoo
Thanks to the heavy black that naturally occurs on butterflies, blackwork tends to work well on tattoos of insects. Rather than feeling heavy, the black feels normal, which makes visual room for more details to be added.
Butterfly Chest Tattoo
Butterfly Tattoo
Butterfly Thigh Tattoo Ideas: A Realistic Butterfly Tattoo
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better realistic monarch butterfly tattoo than this. England’s own Keira Rose knocked it out of the park with this one. The accuracy of the details, the steady lines, the smooth shading, and the vibrant colors were all wonderfully done. And if you like the location, check out our other thigh tattoo ideas
Butterfly Delicate Tattoo
Butterfly Add-On Tattoo
Thanks to their ability to be any size without losing detail, butterflies are great add-ons to existing tattoos. If you’ve already got ink and are faced with filling an empty space, why not choose a butterfly design?
Butterfly Simple Tattoo
Butterfly Shaded Tattoo
If you want to add some intricate detailing without a lot of color or excess lines, opt for light shading to add depth to the wings. Keep any additional details thin and light to keep the design ornate, but not overwhelming.
Butterfly Tattoo
Leopard Butterfly Leg Tattoo
One reason that makes butterfly tattoos popular is the wings. They are like a canvas where artists could go creative. And this leopard butterfly shows how possibilities are endless. Mix and match with different patterns, and you may also have a unique butterfly tattoo.
Moth and Butterfly Friendship Tattoos
Moths and butterflies are both symbols of life and rebirth. To fly, both moths and butterflies have to wrap themselves in a cocoon and push through the transformation. They are living proof that change might be scary, but it’s worth it.
These two best friend tattoos represent the dual’s shared courage. When faced with challenges, they are each other’s strongest support. And these matching moth and butterfly tattoos honor their unbreakable bond.
Geometric Butterfly Triceps Tattoo
This tattoo was done by Diana Gray, who tattoos from Russia and Cyprus. It’s a simple geometric fractalization of a line-work butterfly – nothing that unique, but well-executed. Plus in terms of positioning, you can’t really go wrong with a butterfly tattoo on the tricep
Butterfly Floral Tattoo
Butterflies are a perfect complement to a floral tattoo. Both occur in nature, have beautiful energy, and can represent life. Pairing them bolsters these attributes.
ButterflyContrasting Tattoo
Rather than focusing on the inner wing of a butterfly design, try pulling attention to the blackwork complexities of the wing. The white details create a striking contrast while managing to feel natural.
Butterfly Overlapping Tattoo
Simple Outline Butterfly Forearm Tattoo
This tattoo by Brazilian artist Bruno Matos is just so clean. The fine, fine lines with zero shading give a beautiful, feminine feel. The details in the butterfly’s wings are intriguing, while still providing tons of white space. And the positioning at the top of the forearm is my favorite spot for a forearm butterfly tattoo.
Butterfly Tattoo
Series of Butterflies Tattoo
To play up the movement that comes naturally to a butterfly tattoo, go for a design featuring a series of butterflies. Place each butterfly’s wings into a different mid-flight position to make them seem like they’re flying.
Butterfly Wing Tattoo
Butterfly and Chrysanthemum Neck tattoo
If you are born in November, you may be familiar with the chrysanthemum, as it is the birth flower of the month. However, the chrysanthemum is not just a pretty flower that captures attention. It signifies life and rebirth, just like a butterfly.
Chrysanthemums in different colors have different meanings, too. For example, the red chrysanthemum in this butterfly neck tattoo is a symbol of love and passion.
Butterfly Tattoo Cover-up
Butterflies and flowers often show up together in tattoos for women. This shoulder tattoo is a bit different. Initially, it was a single butterfly tattoo. Then, as the patterns fade, it is redesigned into a flower and a butterfly.
The vibrant colors cover most of the old tattoos. But if you look closer, you can find the old butterfly in the center of the new one, which resembles rebirth. And that’s what makes this cover-up tattoo meaningful.
