Add a tattoo to a photo
Try a tattoo on your arm, shoulder, neck or back. It bends with the limb and takes on your skin, like real ink.
Drop a photo with bare arms, or click to choose
JPG, PNG or WebP. It stays on your device.
How to try a tattoo on your photo
- Add a photo with bare skin. A t-shirt or tank top photo works best: the arm, shoulder, neck or back you want inked should be in view.
- Choose where it goes. Left or right forearm, upper arm, shoulder or hand, the neck or the back. Your body is found on your device, so the tattoo lines up with the limb and is sized to it.
- Tap a design. Pick one of the designs, type a word, or use your own drawing. It is inked into the skin, bent round the arm.
- Adjust it, then download. Drag it to move it and drag its yellow corner to size and turn it. Choose black and grey or colour, fresh or healed, and download.
Designs to try
rose, swallow, compass, geometric band, wave, dragon, anchor, lotus, moon and stars, heart and banner, mountains, snake, butterfly, tribal lines, feather. Each is line art drawn for this site, with grey shading for black and grey, and its own colours for colour. A word or name can be set in script, brush, flourish, gothic, block lettering.
To try the design you have in mind, use Your design: a PNG with a clear background, or a drawing in black on white paper. The white is taken out, so a phone photo of a sketch works.
Why it looks like ink, not a sticker
A tattoo sits under the skin, so the skin’s own light and shade, pores and hairs show through it. The design is laid into the photo as a darkening of the skin that keeps that texture, rather than painted on top. Black ink comes out as a deep blue-black, never flat black, and the brightest highlights on the skin stay bright.
An arm is round, so the design is bent across it: its middle faces you and its sides narrow as they turn away, the way a real tattoo looks on a forearm. The ink stays on skin. Sleeves, straps and the background next to the arm are left clean, worked out from the person found in the photo and the colour of their skin. The Age slider softens and spreads the lines a little, from fresh to healed.
Getting a good result
- Use a sharp photo in even light where the skin fills a good part of the frame.
- Keep the design inside the arm’s outline. Lower Curve round the limb for flat places such as the back or the back of the hand.
- A top close to your skin colour (beige, tan) can pick up ink at its edge. Move the tattoo a little further onto the skin.
- The other tools still work with it: the photo filters change the ink with the skin, as a real tattoo would look in that light.
Related tools
- Photo editor: Crop, adjust, filter, add text, emoji, blur and frames, with undo.
- Photo filters: Film, old-camera, glitch and dither looks, with a strength slider.
- Add text to photo: Type a caption, drag it into place, pick a font, colour and outline.