One Piece Tattoo Ideas to Celebrate Your Inner Pirate

Let’s be honest. At some point, every One Piece fan considers getting an anime tattoo to reflect their undying love for Monkey D. Luffy’s adventures on the Grand Line with his fellow Straw Hat Pirates. But while the feeling is easy to get, the choice is hard to make. With almost 30 years’ worth of story with Eiichiro Oda’s creation, there are so many characters, moments, and assorted bits of iconography in the world of One Piece that choosing just one (or just a few) to emblazon on your skin is a challenge akin to finding the “One Piece” itself. RELATED: Inked Otaku: 11 Black Fans Share Why Their Anime Tattoos Are More Than Skin Deep So if you’ve spent a few years wanting a One Piece tattoo but haven’t been able to decide on the perfect one, well, you and me both, buddy , especially if this is your first tattoo. Do you get a certain symbol? Your favorite devil fruit or favorite characters? Do you get a Luffy tattoo, or an Ace tattoo, or… you get what I mean. So, while we both deliberate on figuring out what the best One Piece tattoo would be, why not check out this list of ideas? Even if you don’t pick one from here, it might spark the necessary inspiration to help you narrow down your choice in One Piece tattoo designs. Straw Hat Jolly Roger Tattoo RELATED: One Piece's Shanks Became Such a Huge Character With So Little Screentime This is the most obvious idea, but it’s also a great one, especially if you’d rather have a singular symbol instead of trying to fit Sanji, Nami, Chopper, Brook, and the rest of the Straw Hats onto your body part of choice(or maybe you do, that’s between you and your tattoo artist). The Jolly Roger for the Straw Hat Crew, bearing Luffy’s straw hat, is an unmistakable tribute to your One Piece love whether you’re a fan of the anime series or have been here since the manga. It can mean a lot of things at once — you love the show, you love Luffy and you love the idea of setting sail and searching for your dreams. While other tattoos might require a moment of “Wait a second, is that…” for the rest of the world to recognize, this one’s impact is immediate. Luffy’s Jolly Roger Drawing Tattoo RELATED: What Devil Fruit Would I Have? Before Usopp touched it up with his superior artistic talent (don’t sleep on Usopp. He’s a man of many, many skills, and even more skills that he’s lying about), Luffy attempted to create his own Jolly Roger. And it was… something. But, even though he did not end up putting it on the sails of the Going Merry, Luffy’s Jolly Roger has remained a beloved piece of art. If anything, it’s a reminder that all dreams, even ones that seem as straightforward as trying to become King of the Pirates, are messy and probably need some work. The “X” of Friendship Tattoo RELATED: Every One Piece Pirate Crew in the Anime So Far When the Straw Hats discovered that Mr. 2 could replicate them, they drew an X on each of their arms to prove that they were the real deals. And at the end of the Alabasta arc, to prove their loyalty and friendship to Princess Vivi, they raised those arms in a show of solidarity. They may have been sailing away from her, but she would always be a Straw Hat. It’s scenes like this that have helped turn One Piece ’s audience from a disparate assembly of dedicated viewers to a crew. And what better way to show your unity than with the “X” of friendship? Luffy’s “Gear 5” Tattoo RELATED: Which One Piece Gear Transformation Are You? Every new Luffy Gear would make for a cool tattoo — the steaming fist on the ground of Gear 2, the dynamic size and range of Gear 3, and the cool balances of Haki shading and bodily distortion of the various forms of Gear 4. But few have been as tattoo-friendly as Gear 5, which revealed Luffy to be perhaps an incarnation of the legendary “Joy Boy” and a symbol of freedom and hope for the entire world. So let the Drums of Liberation sound clear with a Gear 5 tattoo, one that shows not just your love of Luffy’s new form, but of the journey that took him there. The Eneru Face Tattoo When you’re looking for a One Piece tattoo, the first ones that come to mind are likely either minimalistic or a version of some awe-inspiring scene. BUT what if you went for something a little sillier but no less iconic? The Eneru Face, a staple of One Piece reactions that includes bulging eyes, sweat and a wide-open mouth, was popularized when Eneru, wannabe sky god and perhaps One Piece ’s cockiest villain, saw that his electrical attacks had no effect on the rubbery Luffy. And a tattoo of it not only shows that you have a sense of humor but that you’d actively rebel against all future wannabe sky gods. A two-for-one face. Sogeking’s Mask Tattoo RELATED: Which One Piece Story Arc Are You? Tattoos are expressions of ourselves, whether it's our ideals or our aspirations or simply our taste in pop culture. A tattoo of the Sogeking mask combines all three. Donned by Usopp after he was momentarily banished from the Straw Hat Crew, the character Sogeking represented Usopp’s drive to continue to be a brave warrior of the sea. Stoic and borderline mythological, he was also meant to be everything the nervous Usopp thought he wasn’t at the time. And though Usopp hasn’t taken on the mantle of Sogeking in a while, there is no doubt that it will still be there if he needs it as a reminder, like a certain tattoo, of what he stands for. Trafalgar Law’s Tattoos The One Piece characters have an assortment of cool tattoos, but few are as cool as Trafalgar Law’s. Law, a former part of Luffy’s alliance that just wished he would FOLLOW THE PLAN, has some notable tattoos on his hand and fingers (His Jolly Roger would also make for a fun one), and the only thing stopping you from getting them is your belief that you could pull them off. All tattoos require this confidence but the fact that it’s Law’s takes it to another level. So if you get this, just know that you have a level of courage that few of us will ever reach and that we’re all proud of you. “I Want To Live!” Tattoo RELATED: 40 Inspirational One Piece Quotes to Share With Your Crew Aside from Luffy declaring that he’ll one day be King of the Pirates, the closest thing that One Piece has to a mission statement is Nico Robin’s declaration at Enies Lobby: “I want to live!” And though she was weeping at the time, her shout to be heard and to be allowed the life she knew, deep down, that she deserved has echoed through One Piece ever since. Who can’t relate to that? The world is often harsh and the deck can feel like it's stacked against us. But “I want to live!” is a reminder that, with the help of our voices and our friends, we must always push back. Roronoa Zoro Tattoo RELATED: Which One Piece East Blue Character Are You? There are plenty of images of Zoro that would make for good tattoos. You could easily name a half dozen right now. He’s just so cool! But one that sticks out his promise to Luffy, after Zoro’s brutal loss to Mihawk near the Barate, that he would never lose again. Now, we can’t make that promise with any real clarity. The odds are pretty good that we’ll lose again in some form one day. But that pledge doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll never encounter setbacks or things that test us. Instead, it’s a pact that we will always get back up and try again. Buggy’s Clown Nose Tattoo OK, so the flesh around your real nose will probably be pretty tender for a while after and it might be hard to finish a job interview with it, but… “3D2Y” Tattoo RELATED: Which One Piece Character Said This Quote? Originally, Luffy planned for his crew to meet up at Sabaody in three days, because three days is how long it would take Rayleigh to coat the Thousand Sunny and have it ready for the underwater trip to Fishman Island. However, Luffy eventually realized, after the war at Marineford, that it would take waaaay longer for his crew to get strong enough to tackle the New World. So he got a 3D2Y message drawn on his arm to tell the crew that, in two years, they’d reconnect. Even if you’re not telling your best pals to go train for two years in exotic locations, “3D2Y” is still a pretty cool tattoo idea. Sometimes hard work takes a while and “3D2Y” shows that you’re willing to put in the time to make it happen. 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