30 Music Tattoo Ideas That Totally Rock

Have you ever met someone who dislikes music? Can that person be trusted? One thing’s certain: most of us love music and it’s a part of our everyday lives. It’s universal and speaks to each individual’s lived experiences. Whether you’re a music maker or just someone who enjoys listening to it, you might want to show your love with a music-inspired tattoo and we’ve got the music tattoo ideas you are looking for!

There are many different ways to show your love of the tune. Perhaps there’s a certain instrument you have an affinity for or even a format you enjoy listening to your music on. For instance, many people who collect vinyl records are passionate about it and will often get tattoos inspired by record players or even speakers. If you love all the instruments and formats, then another inspiration might be a band or an artist you thoroughly enjoy and admire.

There’s no right or wrong way to find a music tattoo idea! We decided to avoid the deep cuts and instead explore some fresh ink to see what music tattoos people have recently gotten. Here are 30 fresh music tattoo ideas that are so good you’ll want an encore.

Discover the Best Music Tattoo Ideas Below:

Oh, Pick Me!

Women rock! The guitarist with this tattoo proves it with her design of a manicured hand holding a neon green guitar pick. What a fun tat! It’s a great music tattoo idea for a musician.

Hi, Kurt

Wow! This Kurt Cobain tattoo is mindblowing. Take a look at all that detail. It looks just like a photograph. Any of your favorite artists can be the inspiration for your music tattoo ideas.

22

Do you feel like music courses through your veins? We often do! If you feel the same, this could be a great music tattoo idea for you. This heart tattoo with musical notes doesn’t miss a beat.

Jimi Jam

This portrait of the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix is lovingly done. You could not hope for a better outcome when getting a photorealistic portrait tattoo. Again, any artist can serve as inspiration for your music tattoo ideas.

The Production of It All

This tattoo belongs to a music producer and includes all manner of gadgets used during production. We love this 2-D design and the fun abstract shapes that bring it to life.

That’s So Stevie

This magical Stevie Nicks tattoo lives up to the legendary rocker’s reputation. Mysterious and enchanted, we’re here for all of these mystical vibes.

No Good Amy

Amy Winehouse and her iconic hair are given a stylized treatment in this tribute tattoo. The lyric “You know I’m no good” is included for good measure. Turn to your favorites for the best music tattoo ideas.

In the Mix

We are very much into the cassette tape love we’re seeing in music tattoos these days. Who remembers those epic mixtapes? You know, the one you got from a lover that really made you feel the romance? That makes tapes such great music tattoo ideas.

Mind the Music

Where is your head at? In the clouds, we hope. This stunning design features a statue listening to music and losing its head. Do you ever hear a song this good?

Pull On Those Strings

Classical music lovers can get in on the music tattoo ideas game as well. This glorious violin placed delicately inside a blooming flower is excellent.

Lennon, Marley, Mercury, Bowie

We’ve got some minimal portraits of a veritable hall of fame here. John Lennon, Bob Marley, Freddie Mercury, and David Bowie are instantly recognizable thanks to these smart designs.

The Drums

What is the thing you love most about music? Is it the beats? For your music tattoo ideas, turn to the things that make you want to move. Doesn’t this drum kit make you want to dance?

Check It

This vintage microphone conjures images of Motown and classic style. The use of color that’s reflected in the mic is absolutely stunning. Get creative with your music tattoo ideas and it will really pay off!

The Phonograph

Phonographs and gramophones are a hot tattoo trend right now. This is a very classic design, but some people have designs that imagine the horn as a flower or other objects.

RELATED: 30 Easy Tattoo Ideas and Designs to Try

Cher

We did not set out to find a Cher tattoo, but a Cher tattoo found us. This photorealistic portrait of the iconic singer and actor really captures the star’s likeness.

10.

The famous Abbey Road album cover is reimagined in silhouette. We love that the shadows even have shadows here. Album covers tend to be pretty iconic and that makes them excellent inspiration for music tattoo ideas.

Stroke Those Keys

What instrument speaks to you? For this person, it was clearly the piano. If you like to tickle those keys, something similar could be the right music tattoo idea for you.

All That Jazz

Eat your heart out, Lisa Simpson. We’ve got a jazzy saxophone tat here that’s composed of a bunch of dots. Dotwork tattooing is a special skill that gives this design so much character and visual interest.

Fender Bender

This tattoo of a guitar head is masterfully done. Done in the sketch tattoo style and incorporating watercolor red blotches of color, it’s an effective design. Turn to your favorite instruments for the best music tattoo ideas!

Composing

For songwriters and composers, a tattoo of the concept is often hard to pin down. This design takes a very literal approach and we love it. If you are a composer, we can think of no better music tattoo idea!

You Spin Me ‘Round

As promised, we’ve got some viny lovers with tattoos to prove it on the list. This very minimal black ink tattoo of a record looks sharp. For your music tattoo ideas, it’s always smart to go back to basics.

Leo Delibes Watercolor

We’ve got a phenomenal watercolor tattoo with this piece. We find sheet music set in front of the most delicate splashes of color. Remarkable! Music is gorgeous on the page, let it guide your music tattoo ideas.

Coming In On a Hot Mic

Wow. This black and grey tattoo is stunning. Music is so romantic so it’s no surprise that this design includes a gorgeous rose. Feel free to inject a little romance while coming up with your music tattoo ideas.

Banjo, Tho

As we’ve seen, instruments truly make for some of the most compelling music tattoo ideas. How good is that powder blue on this very handsome banjo? We’re all about it! Pluck away, folks.

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Floral Trebel

A treble clef tattoo is a very common design you’ll see time and again. However, this tattoo is jazzed up with the addition of a floral pattern to give it even more character. Nature and music go hand-in-hand so keep it in mind while trying to come up with your music tattoo ideas.

Wow! How good are these music tattoo ideas? We’re pretty sure they totally rock. If you want even more ink inspiration, keep reading for more excellent tattoo ideas that you will love. We’re talking neon, folks. You don’t want to miss these amazing designs.

Neon Moonlight

Nothing glows quite like the moon and this neon pink one is a dream. We mentioned before that the color contrasts with the black and grey of to make these tattoos appear to buzz.

Bleeding Heart

This tattoo looks like it was inspired by a contemporary sci-fi movie. We love the glow effect created here by shading all of the areas around the heart. This one’s haunting!

Play On

By pairing typical neon colors like this cyan-blue with pitch-black ink, you get a very weird result that looks as if the tattoo is lit by magic. It’s the same concept used in old televisions.

Crystal Sparkle

White ink inside bright pink gives the neon effect here. We love the magical crystal snow globe chosen for this design.

Perfect Pug

Sometimes just going full-on mega colorful will give a tattoo the effect you’re after. With this watercolor pug, we find contrasting bright colors used to highlight and shade a primarily purple and blue pup.

Indya Moore Tribute

Fans of the TV show, Pose might recognize the glowing face in this tattoo. The person who shared it explained it’s a tribute to one of the show’s brightest stars, Indya Moore.

Meow

Tiger, tiger burning bright. Well, this is actually a tattoo of a cougar, but neon tiger sounded a little better to us. This has a retro vibe that we are completely floored by.

Keep Glowing

Do you spot the bow and arrow imagery here? The flowers are wrapped around the arrow and the neon moon tattoo is meant to mimic the shape of a bow. We would bet that this tattoo belongs to a Sagittarius.

RELATED: 25 Sagittarius Tattoos That Will Shoot an Arrow Through Your Heart

Billie

Your girl, Billie Eilish looks like a radiant dream in this heart-shaped graffiti fantasy. If you’re a fan of this young musician, you could do no better than a tribute like this one.

Praying

We don’t know about you, but we’re not big on bugs so a praying mantis is not top-of-mind when we’re looking for tattoos to share with you. However, this glowing one does have a cute demeanor so, enjoy!

Dripping

This neon tattoo has a lovely rainbow drip oozing from the Gameboy screen. As we mentioned before, this type of tat pairs black with cyan to make it buzz brightly.

Wink

This Hello Kitty! gamer girl is pretty wild! We love this bubble gum pop of a tattoo that’s just soaked in beautiful color. This probably took ages to complete, but the end result is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

Neon Meets Nature

This one is a cool one because it features a mellow nature scene that’s been shocked by a neon triangle. We love the way the leaves weave through the shape at the upper right. Very cool!

The Crown (2020)

Meet Queen Maxine, a Boston terrier who seems like a total gem. A glowing pink grown gives this pup a very distinguished look.

Smile On

This melting smiley face is the trippy delight we needed. Two different oranges with varying levels of red in each help give this tattoo its otherworldly appearance.

Twinkle Twinkle

Jem and the Holograms! Who else remembers this pop sensation from the eighties? We can’t get enough of all of the purple and pink and all the twinkling stars, of course.

Lean Into the Bends

Synthwave is an electronic music microgenre that is based predominately on the music associated with action, science-fiction, and horror film soundtracks of the 1980s. We find a wavy cassette tape as a tribute to the genre.  

Micro Marvels

Have you ever seen micro tattoos like these little objects before? We find a trashcan, a skull, a dinosaur, and a locomotive. Adorable!

Ronald the Rat

Here’a another neon pet tattoo of a little fellow called Roger the Rat. He’s very handsome and the neon diamond around him helps brings warmth and reverence to the tattoo.

Seeing Double

Astrology tattoos have been huge for decades. We must say that we’ve never witnessed a Gemini tattoo design like this one before. The twins are positively glowing and there’s plenty of witchy imagery around them to keep your eyes busy. Charming!

Vandalized

There’s an odd trend that you might have seen out in the world of graffiti tattoos or vandalized tattoos that reimagines pop culture touchstones as a surface for street art adornment. The Billie Eilish tattoo you looked at earlier also had these characteristics.

Give a Hand

We think this is a mom tattoo of a mother holding a baby’s hand. It’s very cool as the hands carry the overall shape of the circle here. How tender!

Haku Dragon

Haku is the only character in the film Spirited Away able to turn into a dragon at will. We love this neon tribute tattoo that finds him floating on a leg.

Glowing Neon Rose

Wow! We must say this blue teardrop is breathtaking. The black and grey rose is so beautiful and it’s made even more dramatic by that neon blue. More of the same, please.

RELATED: 25 Trippy 3D Tattoos That Jump Off the Skin

Game Over

“Vibrant colorwork on this scar coverup,” the person who shared this image wrote. So, not only is this one of the wildest tattoos you’ll ever see it also is a coverup that is notoriously difficult for artists. We bet the person with this design could not be happier.

There you go! 25 neon tattoos that showcase this emerging trend and share the glow with the world. We hope you enjoyed these designs and feel inspired to go out and get your very own.