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Want to get your back inked with a meaningful octopus tattoo design? It looks like we heard your call. Here is a list of the Top 10 Best Octopus back tattoo Designs.
Octopuses, as sea creatures of the deep ocean and coral reefs, often portray mystery and intelligence.
However, the symbolism associated with the octopus tattoo doesn’t end here! From Ireland to Japan to Polynesia, Octopuses have differing significance.
In some ancient cultures around the world, they are associated with regeneration and adaptability due to their physical attributes like cellular regrowth and camouflaging, while in other religions like Christianity, they believe it leads people into darkness and depth.
Octopus tattoos have recently gained a lot of traction from both men and women tattoo enthusiasts. One of the major reasons behind this is the variety of octopus tattoo ideas available on the web. You can customize their sizes, colours and even realism of the designs, meaning you can go for a radiant and colourful body art or a classic black & grey, hyper-realistic design. In essence, you could pick up any design, give it a little creative push and make it your own art.
As for their placement, they would look best on your back along with shoulders, forearms and legs.
Octopus tattoos being such rare and unique to be prefered, having one inked is guaranteed to make you stand out. Here are the 10 best Octopus tattoo designs we think you’ll love.
Skull Octopus Tattoo
In this Skull-Octopus Tattoo, the octopus tentacles are paired with a spooky skull. Herein the skull is shaping the head and tentacles distending from the skull.
In a general sense, the Skull tattoo represents evoke a dark and grim feeling. Meanwhile, the octopus represents mystery. Combining them both would be a great choice for someone who is looking for a fearful yet intimidating design.
This design follows the classic black and grey combination and is so incredibly detailed that the daunting effect clearly prevails. The tattoo artist has done a great job using the dark/light shading effect combined with white space around the skull to make it a realistic octopus tattoo.
This Skull Octopus design is the perfect resilient tattoo due to the symbolism behind it. Skull tattoos are widely popular as they represent the cycle of mortality and death at the same time. Such octopus tattoos look great on the back!
Polynesian Octopus Tattoo
Octopus tattoos are a sacred design in the Polynesian culture. In Polynesia, tribal octopus tattoo has deep spiritual meaning attached to it.
They are seen as a medium to evaluate what to change in oneself. The tribal octopus tattoo emphasizes a popular belief of how we should learn and better ourselves each day. It can be trying out new things or overcoming our existing fears.
Coming to this back tattoo, need we say something? This Polynesian octopus tattoo speaks for itself. The detailing and effort put into this design is nothing short of ethereal. This tattoo design here has the power to instil deep fear in anyone looking at it.
Not just the awesome octopus, but when looked closely, we can see the careful integration of other Polynesian tribal designs like a spearhead, lizard and shark-teeth pattern to form the whole design.
If you are someone who is close to polyenes culture and heritage, getting this design inked would be an amazing choice. However, the best octopus tattoo placement, in this case, would only be the back since it requires a lot of space. You can also mix elements of Polynesian culture with the Japanese culture to make realistic tattoos of octopuses!
Red Octopus Tattoo
Unlike all the big and alarming designs on this list, the next tattoo is different, to say the least.
Inked in red colouring, this red octopus tattoo gives a new meaning to the creature’s beauty and proves that small tattoos have their own charm.
Contrary to all the above designs, this creative tattoo doesn’t have over the top detailing and patterns to make it look scary. Instead, it has a cute and adorable touch to it.
The artist has taken a different approach by keeping it simple and minimalistic for people who don’t like flashy stuff. So if you were looking for some individualized octopus hand tattoo, go with this one.
This octopus tattoo would look really great if you can adjust the dimensions to fit it on the back!
Geometric Octopus Tattoo
Geometric designs have always been loved by tattoo enthusiasts and for their distinct style. This geometric octopus tattoo tells a story of its own.
In contrast to other back tattoo designs, here, the head and tentacles have been given a more curvy, precise and symmetrical shape.
To add a bit of roughness, the artist has decided to go one with a starry sprinkle effect in the background.
This octopus shoulder tattoo is further paired up with vivid colours of blue and red. Geometric tattoo designs require a lot of skill, so make sure you pick the best one from the pool of tattoo artists. Althought this is an octopus tattoo sleeve, why don’t you change it into an octopus tattoo for your back!
Elephant Octopus Tattoo
At first, an octopus back design combined with an elephant’s head may seem a bit odd to you. But the meaning behind this tattoo will change your perception.
The Elephant Octopus tattoo represents dualism in a beautiful way. This unique tattoo combines the characteristics of both these animals to convey a profound message.
To break it down, the elephant represents strength and power while the octopus displays agility and intelligence; integrating both of them represents that you are someone who has the brains and brawn to overcome any obstacle life throws at you.
As for this back tattoo, you can keep it simple or choose to experiment with colours to make it more impactful and captivating. You can make it even more detailed to transform into realistic octopus tattoos for your back!
Realistic Octopus Tattoo
Show us a more realistic tattoo; we dare you!
All jokes aside, this hyper-realistic tattoo can easily give tattoo artists a run for their money. At first glance, it looks like something coming directly out of a painting.
This design uses a variety of colours to make itself stand out. The octopus is primarily coloured yellow with a pinch of brown and blue fused in there. The whole tattoo is outlined in red and white.
On top of that, one major factor contributing to its realism is the shadow effect behind the main figure, making it look as if a real octopus is attached to your body.
You should definitely choose to get this realistic looking octopus on your back!
Blue-Ringed Octopus Tattoo
Though nearly all octopuses are venomous, the title for most deadly octopus goes to the Blue-Ringed Octopus.
This full back octopus tattoo is perfect for someone looking to get beautiful body art done as this Blue-ringed octopus tattoo spans across the whole arms and chest. The use of colours is also done beautifully. Though blue-ringed octopuses are docile in nature, when alarmed, they change their colour to yellow, which is what the artist has used in this octopus tattoo.
On top of that, the blue colour is smartly used both in highlighting blue rings on the body as well the surrounding sea waves. This shows that there’s something more to this design than just an octopus tentacle tattoo.
Kraken Back Tattoo
Want to take the spookiness to the next level? Then consider getting a Kraken tattoo inked.
Recently Kraken as a sea creature has been widely featured in pirate films and fables. It is often confused with giant squids, but according to nordic legends, Kraken was an eight-legged monster residing in the depth of the ocean.
This sea monster was so huge that its tentacles could wrap the whole ship and drag it into the void. Throughout history, people and scientists have claimed the existence of this terrifying sea creature.
Most Kraken back tattoo designs, much like this one, portray Kraken’s tentacles wrapped around a ship. The octopus tattoo is made using a vibrant colour palette, including a mix of orange and yellow for the octopus and for the surroundings; the artist has majorly used white, black and blue.
Due to the size of this octopus tattoo, it’ll look good only as a back tattoo.
Small Octopus Tattoo Idea
Everybody likes a cute and small octopus tattoo.
The elements of this octopus tattoo design go perfectly together. Octopuses are seen as survivors. They are able to recover quickly from bad situations. Here the octopus is paired up with leaves, representing different seasons spring, summer, fall and winter. In essence, this tells a story of how bad circumstances can come up unexpectedly and how one needs resilience to fight them.
If you are looking for a minimalistic but witty octopus tattoo, consider getting this one inked on your back!
Watercolor Octopus Tattoo Design
Watercolor Octopus Tattoos have gained a lot of traction recently because of their beautiful style of art. Contrasting to the traditional and dull techniques, watercolour tattoos have a sense of motion and fluidity attached to it.
Moreover, what makes this watercolour octopus tattoo unique is the emotion it presents. While most designs in this list display the emotions of fear and dismal, watercolour tattoos have a fun and aesthetic touch to them.
Take the above design, for example, this is essentially a forearm octopus tattoo extending its tentacles to the back. Not only its well-drawn with the octopus’ structure in mind, but the mix of blue and purple also make it even more attention-grabbing.
One thing to note here is when giving instructions to your artist, make sure you tell exactly what gradient you have in mind. While this is a design from octopus shoulder tattoos, a tattoo artist won’t find it difficult to transform into octopus back tattoo!
Feature Image from Pinterest – Want your tattoo to look brighter? Try “Tattoo Balm”
