The 22 Best Tattoos of 2022!

As editor-in-chief of Inked Magazine, I can very easily make the argument that I spend more time looking at tattoos than anybody else on the planet. My social media feeds are filled with tattoos, my daily business is filled with tattoos and the bodies of most of my co-workers and many of my friends are filled with tattoos. Every time there is anything remotely notable involving a tattoo, my phone blows up with friends and relatives saying, “Holy shit, did you see what [insert celebrity name here] got tattooed?”

So when we were sitting around trying to figure out some end-of-year lists to throw together I floated the idea of doing the best tattoos of the year. Which, if you think about it for any longer than a millisecond, is an impossible task. There are millions of tattoos created each year, it would take a herculean effort to see even a fraction of them, let alone rank them all neatly in a list. But let me tell you this, since I value each and every one of you wonderful readers, I made that herculean effort at great sacrifice to my personal sanity. It was both a labor of love and a trial of the human will, but I did it just for you. You’re welcome.

OK, you caught me, that was a lie. I didn’t see every tattoo produced this year, nor did I do any scientific rankings. Literally all I did was sit down at the computer, scroll through Instagram and try to remember who did some really sick shit this year. This is 100% my personal opinion, which you should know by now, is the most important opinion of all, so why would I need to factor anything else into my decisions? Whatever I like is clearly the best and anything that didn’t make this list is, by definition, terrible.

Without any further ado, here are the 22 best tattoos of 2022! If you’ve got a problem with any of them feel free to meet me outside of Inked NYC on New Years Day and we’ll punch it out, Gangs of New York style. There really aren’t enough street brawls in today’s society, but that’s another topic for another time. May I proudly present the only tattoos that matter from 2022!

22. Manh Huynh

This tattoo broke my brain when I first saw it, so much so that I was wondering if somebody had slipped some LSD into my seltzer water. It turns out that they didn’t and that Manh Huynh is simply a creative genius doing things Hanna nor Barbera ever dreamed of.

21. Hoode

It’s no secret that Hoode has been the go-to artist for blackouts for quite a while now, but what if he found a different color ink sitting around the shop one day and decided to give a blueout a try? Boom. The saturation is one thing, but look at that insanely straight line connecting the blue and black. Goddamn.

20. Marqui Watling

The colors. The placement. The simplicity. There’s so much to love here.

19. Shi Ryu

This bodysuit is still in progress, but I’m not holding off on sharing it. It’s insane. The person who got this tattoo is so much tougher than I’ll ever be.

18. Zlata Kolomoyskaya

Personally, I adore silly tattoos. This kitty cat is so whimsical and delightful, and Kolomoyskaya’s black-and-grey realism is on point.

17. Hannah Flowers

I’m a sucker for well-done neo traditional tattoos. What I really love about this piece is the way Flowers was able to capture moisture on the woman’s face. Most of the time tattooers try to do this, they fail. Such a gorgeous tattoo.

16. Edit Paints

Wow. Seriously, that’s all I have to say about this. Wow.

15. Derek Turcotte

Reptar! Spongebob! Arnold! All That! This leg sleeve just inspired me to watch hours of Nickelodeon cartoons. Needs Doug in there some place, but other than that, no complaints.

14. Opal

The level of detail within these little rectangles is absurd. It’s hard to believe that this is a tattoo and not just a sticker.

13. Kitchen Tattooer

This one’s an upset. Even though Google has officially decided that this is the greatest tattoo of all time, it’s only coming in at #13 for me this year. The Sucky Panther is an icon and this is likely my favorite of the hundreds of them I’ve seen.

12. Kat Abdy

There’s so much going on in this back piece that if it were done by a lesser artist it would feel muddled and confusing. Abdy, on the other hand, absolutely kills it with this back piece. I particularly love all of the different textures.

11. Bert Krak

Over the years I’ve seen hundreds of tattoos by Bert Krak and I’ve been impressed by them all, the man is consistent, but this is the first one that ever made my jaw hit the floor. There’s 66 skulls on that man’s skull, in case you were counting.

10. Pony Lawson

Pony Lawson is the only tattooer I know who drinks exclusively margarita. Mexican restaurant? Margarita. Sushi spot? Margarita. Dive bar with a bathroom that looks like a super fund site? Margarita. The man has a brand and he stays dedicated to it. Of course, he also has his other brand which is based around being an amazing tattooer. His take on this Jeff Koons art piece is tremendous.

9. Gustavo Jaimes

You ever see a tattoo on someone else and think, Goddamn, that person must have the exact same brain I do? That’s exactly how I felt when I saw this Jason Voorhees doing his best impression of Lloyd Dobler from “Say Anything,” while trading out the boring Peter Gabriel song for one of the best Menzingers songs. This tattoo rules so fucking hard.

8. The Leisure Bandit

Mandala tattoos are so 2021, Nelson Mandala tattoos are the way of the future. It’s so clever while also being incredibly stupid, I love it to death.

7. David Corden

This realistic kitty fits into that snug little spot so beautifully that it reminds me of every single bodega cat I’ve found nestled in between items on a shelf. You don’t see realistic gap fillers all that often, and when you do they’re rarely as well done as this one is.

6. Kelly Doty

Kelly Doty makes my list every single year. Creatively, there are very few tattooers who are doing what she does on an every day basis. Jessica Rabbit is a character you’ve seen 50,000 times before, but you’ve never seen here like this, have you? It’s really hard to put into words how impressive it is when an artist can do a new take on an iconic image and have it simultaneously be recognizable and groundbreaking.

5. Mat Rule

I’m lucky enough to work just a few yards away from Mat, so I see his ingenious creations on a daily basis. Every time I’m blown away by how delightfully silly his tattoos are, but this Michelangelo/Handsome Squidward mashup may very well be the greatest one ever.

4. Sara Rosa

Is there anything better than a crisp fine line tattoo? The answer is no, no there is not. This rules.

3. Spider Sinclaire

There’s no eloquent way to say this so I’ll just get blunt—Spider Sinclaire’s tattoos go so fucking hard. They all seem to be plucked from the fever dream of a D&D obsessed teenage metalhead, in the best way possible. This stomach piece is impeccable.

2. Dan McWilliams

Listen, I know Squirtle is far from the coolest Pokemon, but I don’t care. I love the little guy. So when I saw this tattoo by Dan McWilliams I squealed—yes, I, a grown-ass man, squealed—with delight.

1. Myke Chambers

This snake here is named Slithering Sam and he is a delight. He is by far the greatest tattoo of the entire year, possibly the entire decade. And do you know why? Because it’s on the arm that is typing this very sentence as we speak. I told you this was going to be a biased list, so of course the number one tattoo is the tattoo I got a couple of weeks ago. But even if I wasn’t pushing my thumb down on the scale to make my tattoo the winner, Myke Chambers is responsible for some of the cleanest traditional tattoos in all the land.