r/tattoos on SubMouse

About r/tattoos

In its own words:

This tattoos subreddit is to share, discuss, and ask questions about THE ART YOU WEAR. Please enjoy your stay.

The community was created on Jun 24, 2008, which makes it 18 years old. Since Oct 19, 2026, it has gained 2,870 subscribers (+0.03%). It sits just behind r/nextfuckinglevel (#77) and ahead of r/CryptoCurrency (#79) in our ranking.

What sets r/tattoos apart

r/tattoos is far more image-driven than most big subreddits: 51% of its recent posts are images, against a median of 9% across the Top 100. r/tattoos is more of a browsing community than a debating one: 6.4 comments per post on average, well under the Top 100 median of 16.2. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (22:00 UTC) sees about 3.4× as many posts as the quietest (05:00 UTC).

Subscriber growth

Between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026, r/tattoos grew from 10,338,053 to 10,349,597 subscribers (+11.5K, +0.11%). That is about 289 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (8 so far), so it gets longer every week.

All-time top posts

The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/tattoos, from 2018 to 2025, ranked by Reddit.

What I asked for vs what I got.u/Snoo_82835 · Jan 2, 2025 · gallery
I fixed a portrait tattoo! What does reddit think?u/Grouchy_Payment6934 · Feb 12, 2025 · image
My Grandma & Grandpa - by Eli Wood at Lombard Street Tattoo in Portland!u/sydken · Mar 29, 2018 · image
What I asked for v. what I gotu/BeaReasonable · Sep 5, 2025 · gallery
What do u think about this design for my first tatttoou/Skias9 · Feb 1, 2025 · image
What I asked for vs what I gotu/little_seahorse1991 · Jul 25, 2025 · gallery
I’m Deaf, and got my first tattoou/yoooitsmeZee · Jun 26, 2025 · image
Tattoo artist turn skin into Porcelain inspired Artu/SprinklesMost4127 · Aug 10, 2025 · gallery
Done by Chris Rigoni at Bloodlines Ink in Perth, Western Australiau/thatonecritter713 · Oct 23, 2020 · image
Finally got a moving pieceJun 21, 2025 · gallery

What r/tattoos talks about

Looking at the titles of 690 recent posts (Oct 21–Oct 28), the words that come up most are “tattoo”, “question”, “studio”, “advice” and “sleeve”. Other frequent themes are needed, artist, ink, london, piece and germany. Recurring phrases include “advice needed”, “tattoo studio”, “london w-ink” and “w-ink ldn”. By format, 51% are images, 34% are galleries and 9% are text posts.

tattoo 292
question 81
studio 41
advice 41
sleeve 31
needed 30
artist 29
ink 26
london 25
piece 21
germany 18
nyc 16
session 14
hand 14
w-ink 14
ldn 14
work 14
cover 14

Popular post flairs: Freshly Finished Tattoo (375), Question/Advice (129), REMOVED - crosspost (62), Fully Healed Tattoo (60), In Progress (25), REMOVED (22).

Activity and best time to post

r/tattoos gets about 110 new posts a day. The public archive holds 708,981 posts and 4,556,046 comments in total, about 6.4 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Wednesday (132 posts) and the quietest was Saturday (90). Posting peaks around 22:00 UTC and is lowest around 05:00 UTC.

Posts per hour of the day, UTC, Oct 21, 2026 – Oct 27, 2026

Images 51%Galleries 34%Text posts 9%Videos 4%Links 2%

Rules of r/tattoos

The moderators of r/tattoos list 8 rules. In short:

Post requirements
Be respectful
Do not sexualize other users
Tattoos must be by a professional artist and fully healed, tag NSFW
Question Guidelines
Questions for your tattoo artist
No aftercare/medical questions
No Pricing Discussion

How to join

Open reddit.com/r/tattoos and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.

Frequently asked questions

How many subscribers does r/tattoos have?

r/tattoos has 10,349,597 subscribers (Oct 29, 2026), which makes it the #78 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 11,544 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026.

When was r/tattoos created?

r/tattoos was created on Jun 24, 2008, so it has been around for 18 years.

Is r/tattoos still active?

Yes. r/tattoos gets about 110 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 708,981 posts and 4,556,046 comments. In a sample of 690 recent posts we counted 527 different authors.

What is the best time to post in r/tattoos?

Based on post counts from Oct 21, 2026 to Oct 27, 2026, the busiest day was Wednesday and the quietest Saturday, and most posts arrive around 22:00 UTC, with the fewest around 05:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.

What kind of posts are on r/tattoos?

The community describes itself as: “This tattoos subreddit is to share, discuss, and ask questions about THE ART YOU WEAR. Please enjoy your stay.” Recent post titles often mention tattoo, question, studio, advice and sleeve. Most posts are images (51%).

Is r/tattoos SFW?

Yes. Reddit does not mark r/tattoos as an 18+ (NSFW) community, and its own rules forbid NSFW content. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.

What are the rules of r/tattoos?

Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/tattoos accepts both text and link posts, with images, videos and galleries enabled. It has 8 posted rules, starting with: “Post requirements”; “Be respectful”; “Do not sexualize other users”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.

What subreddits are similar to r/tattoos?

Communities with similar topics include r/soccer (8.8M), r/AskReddit (60M), r/Art (22.6M), r/StockMarket (4.1M) and r/BeAmazed (9.7M).

Stats from public data (data updated Oct 29, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Oct 29, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/tattoos.

r/tattoos