25 Neon Tattoos That Crank the Color to the Max

Are you all about the glow of neon and bright, vibrant colors? We’ve got just the tattoo trend for you that’s emerging as one of the hottest requests for tattoo artists right now. White ink and a glow effect help these designs appear like they’re actually pulsing with electricity. Some artists will also use glow in the dark ink to make the effect even more pronounced with a black light.

We took a deep dive to discover the limits of this technique and to get inspiration for future tattoos. There seem to be a couple of ways of going about this. One is the use of particular inks and colors we commonly associate with neon. The other is by pairing those colors with black and grey designs with the contrast creating the illusion. Check out these unbelievable neon tattoos to understand the current craze.

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.