Every year, there are always those tattoos that everyone seem to have gotten. Last year, it was the infinity symbol—which is basically, the butt of jokes in the tattoo community these days. Tattoo trends come and go, some stay behind while new ones enter the scene to make its mark. People take the idea of a large number of people getting the same tattoos negatively but I think it’s also a sign that tattoos are surfacing and getting its ass out there to break the ugly tattoo stigma. The small part we play here is to spread the word and help as much as we can to expand the possibilities in tattoos.
We’ve talked to tattoo artists from all over the world about the most popular tattoos of 2015. Many of them are also the most-requested designs in our Tattoodo Custom services. The designs just keep getting better!

1. Arrows

Arrows are like the infinity symbols of this year. A lot of tattoo artists reported young people coming over their shop in herds wanting the same thing which is—you guessed it—arrow tattoos.

Most tattoo artists in major cities this year get weekly requests of arrow tattoos straight from Instagram and Tumblr, the biggest source of tattoo ideas these days.

2. Pocket watch with rose (and clocks everywhere)

If girls were lining up this year for arrow tattoos, the guys seem to be drawn to pocket watches specifically paired with roses. “A big thing is the pocket watch with two roses on either side. A couple of years ago, everyone wanted owls,” says Tota Volpe-Landi of Happy Sailor Tattoo in London.

“Honestly, I am so fed up with them. Clocks in eyes, clocks in roses, clocks in bigger clocks. It’s become insane,” says Craig Hicks, a tattoo artist from Manchester.

3. Underboob

Labelled as the new “tramp stamp”, 2015 has seen quite a lot of ladies losing their shirt for a few hours of agony getting their sternums tattooed with mostly geometric patterns and mandalas (see below). Although we don’t agree on the tramp stamp part because so far, most of the underboob tattoos we’ve seen this year are stunning.

Aside from social media hype, the underboob trend may also owe part of its popularity to singer Rihanna.

4. Semicolon

The Semicolon Project really brought up a very sensitive topic and helped thousands of people struggling with depression hold their heads up high and believe that their story really is not yet finished. It’s more than a trend. It raised awareness on the topic of depression which most people often misunderstood and would rather not talk about.

5. Mountain

Popular choice of tattoos in both blackwork and dotwork. We’ve seen a lot of scenery stuff in tattoos, too this year and we especially loved the ones by artists like Lisa Orth and Susanne Konig

6. Watercolor

“Watercolor tattoos are lovely. But not all tattoo artists are able to get them right. It’s not like the standard traditional style because it requires a lot of contrasting and low tones and whatnot. But most clients don’t realise that. They just assume that you can and when they end up getting something that looks nothing like the picture they printed, they complain,” says Martsy Reyes, a traditional American style tattoo artist.

We agree, watercolor tattoos really are lovely—when they’re done right. Otherwise, you’ll just look like as if you’ve taken care of a toddler who’s left unattended with a bunch of acrylic paint.

7. Mandala

Geometric tattoos were big last year. Many of those geometric tattoos incorporated mandalas peppered with fine dotwork. Mandalas were used to be associated with spirituality but it seems to be leaning more towards the decorative side these days.