Article image

13 Quotes for Your Next Tattoo

Though they’re increasingly popular, tattoos are by no means a modern innovation. Marking the skin permanently with dye has been found in cultures around the world dating back millennia. Case in point: When the 5300-year-old naturally mummified body of Otzi the Iceman was discovered in 1991 in the Italian alps, the preserved body was found to have 61 distinct tattoos. Tattoos often held a deep spiritual meaning for our ancient ancestors, and for many people they are still loaded with significance.

To mark something permanently into the skin is a profound act, which is why we tend to choose tattoos that are meaningful to us. Our designs may commemorate important people or dates in our lives, express our most cherished ideals, or serve as a daily reminder of the things we value. While many people employ images for this form of expression, words can also be a powerful option. With that in mind, here are 15 quotes worthy of being inked.

Only in the darkness can you see the stars.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Share Quote

To live will be an awfully big adventure.
J.M. Barrie

Share Quote

Still I rise.
Maya Angelou

Share Quote

Make each day your masterpiece.
John Wooden

Share Quote

Everything you can imagine is real.
Pablo Picasso

Share Quote

Though she be but little, she is fierce.
William Shakespeare

Share Quote

Through every dark night, there's a bright day after that.
Tupac Shakur

Share Quote

Sometimes, when you fall, you fly.
Neil Gaiman

Share Quote

The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
eden ahbez

Share Quote

Impossible is just an opinion.
Paulo Coelho

Share Quote

Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Aristotle

Share Quote

Let it be.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Share Quote

Wisdom begins in wonder.
Socrates

Share Quote

Photo credit: joelfilip/ Unsplash

Author image
About the Author
Ben Gazur
Ben Gazur is a freelance writer, historian, and folklorist.
Play more header background
Play more icon
Daily Question
Fill in the blank: "___ is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world." - Amit Ray

More Inspiration

happiness theme icon

One must go on working silently, trusting the result to the future.

separator icon
Vincent van Gogh
motivation theme icon

A genuinely happy person is one who has rendered others happy.

separator icon
Daisaku Ikeda
hope theme icon

We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well.

separator icon
Oliver Sacks
love theme icon

At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.

separator icon
Frida Kahlo
wisdom theme icon

Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health.

separator icon
Ralph Waldo Emerson
happiness theme icon

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

separator icon
Henry David Thoreau
motivation theme icon

In all things it is better to hope than to despair.

separator icon
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
hope theme icon

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

separator icon
Zora Neale Hurston
love theme icon

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.

separator icon
Laozi
wisdom theme icon

Don't move the way fear makes you move.

separator icon
Rumi
happiness theme icon

I am all the things I have ever loved.

separator icon
Toni Morrison