As you can imagine, knives, daggers, and swords are popular tattoo design choices—and have been for quite some time. From neo traditional daggers that pierce the skin, to more modern cooking knives (think Halloween and Psycho), this list features just about every different type of bladed tattoo you can think of.
We hope you enjoy our collection of knife, dagger, and sword tattoos and if you find this list inspiring, be sure to check out some of our other lists for more great tattoos.
This reflection.
Creating a reflection on the knife’s surface is a great way to add a little depth and detail to what’s usually a simple object. In this example, Tritoan illustrates the image of a shadowy figure with such perfection that you almost forget you’re looking at a knife. (Photo: Tritoan Ly)
This stylish knife tattoo.
Felipe is one of those tattoo artists with such a unique style that his work is easily recognizable even with the amount of quality artists out there creating similar designs. Felipe’s mixture of the watercolor and sketched style technique mimics an artist’s overdrawn lines–commonly seen in rough drafts–with one of the most popular coloring techniques as of late. (Photo: Felipe Rodrigues Fe Rod)
This shadowy dotwork design.
Modern kitchen knives, or chef knives as they’re commonly referred to, are just as popular as their more traditional dagger counterparts. While one often pictures a neo traditional design when they imagine a knife tattoo, chef knives are very slasher-esque and evoke a certain nostalgia associated with more recent generations. (Photo: Pawel Indulski)
This watercolor dagger tattoo.
The modern-day handgun, daggers were the ultimate concealed weapon for thousands of years and are still carried by many people today. This list features a few different watercolor designs but we did our best to keep them to a minimum this time around. (Photo: Anton)
This skeleton knife.
We had a hard time deciding which photo of this tattoo we were going to use due to the many different shots available. Eventually, we figured that this close up gave the viewer the best perspective. This unique concept illustrates what a knife would look like if it had a skeleton and no skin. Epic. (Photo: Gara)
This tiny finger tat.
Tiny finger tats are always cool, but this little knife, and it’s low key location is something so undeniably awesome that even the untattooed would feel obligated. The longer you stare, the more detail you notice. (Photo: Kane Navasard)
This floral knife.
For some reason florals just seem to go with everything. Imagined as a way to add a feminine feel to things, the “floral infusion,” as we like to call it, never disappoints, adding an extra dose of beauty and intricacy to the mix. (Photo: KndraArF)
This elaborate back piece.
We’ve featured this design on at least one other post that we can remember, but we felt excluding it from this list just wouldn’t be fair to you. Everything from the placement to the composition proves just how beautiful ink can be when everything comes together. (Photo: Aleksandra Kozubska)
This tiny shoulder piece.
Originally this list started off as a strictly knife and dagger piece. It wasn’t until later that we realized that many of the knife and dagger tattoos we saved along the way were in fact sword tattoos and could in no way be confused for a knife or dagger. The beautifully designed and executed example shown above is also partly responsible for recruiting the rest of the swords seen in this article (we didn’t have quite enough). And for once, the opening/cut in the skin actually looks real! (Photo: Sanghyuk Ko)
This switchblade.
Growing up, a switchblade with a plastic comb for a blade was the closet we ever got to realizing our dream of owning a bona fide switchblade. But in retrospect, I kind of understand where my parents were coming from. A 10-year-old kid with a switchblade probably wasn’t the best idea. (Photo: Simona)
