Snake tattoo ideas, meaning and designs

The snake designs people actually ask for

A snake wrapped around a forearm or a bicep is the most requested version, and it works because the body can follow the taper of the limb. The ouroboros is the next most common, usually as a closed ring on the upper arm or the thigh. After that come the snake and dagger, the snake through a skull's eye socket, and Medusa as a portrait with the snakes treated as hair.

American traditional snakes are their own thing: a rattlesnake coiled to strike with a forked tongue out, heavy outline, three or four flat colors. That design carries American political baggage through the Gadsden flag, which is worth knowing before you put one on a visible spot. Japanese work uses the snake, or hebi, alongside peonies and waves in exactly the same way it uses the dragon.

How a snake is drawn so the coil reads

The body tapers from just behind the head to the tail, and the taper has to be consistent even where the body disappears behind itself. Belly scutes run as wide horizontal bands on the underside, and dorsal scales are smaller diamond rows that shift angle as the body twists. Artists who draw both get a snake that looks round. Artists who only draw the diamonds get something flat.

Crossings are where it succeeds or fails. At every overlap the artist needs a shadow under the upper section and a slight break in the scale rows of the lower one. In blackwork that means a gap of bare skin. In color it means a darker value. Without it the body reads as two separate ropes that happen to meet.

Details that separate a good snake from a rope

• A consistent taper from the neck to the tail tip
• Belly scutes as wide bands, dorsal scales as smaller diamonds
• A cast shadow under every crossing point
• Scale rows that change angle as the body turns
• A head with a visible jaw line, not a smooth wedge

Size, placement and what it costs

A snake wrapping a forearm from wrist to elbow measures 25 to 35 cm along the body. An armband coil is 15 to 20 cm. The floor for a scaled snake is around 12 cm, because below that the diamond rows merge into texture within a few years. A linework snake with no scales works down to 6 or 7 cm.

The spine suits a vertical snake better than almost any subject, since the body can follow the vertebrae. The sternum takes a coiled snake well. A forearm wrap is typically three to five hours at $150 to $250 an hour. A large Japanese snake with peonies and water on a thigh runs two to three sessions and $1,200 to $2,500.

Ageing, and what people come back to fix

Bold traditional snakes age as well as any tattoo, because the outline carries the shape and the color inside it is flat. Realistic snakes with individually rendered scales are the risk. A 15 cm snake with every scale outlined becomes a grey tube in about a decade, so experienced artists render scales only in the areas closest to the viewer and imply the rest.

The other fix people ask for is direction. A snake drawn head down on a forearm looks right when your arm hangs at your side and upside down in every photograph where you are holding something. Ask the artist to show you the stencil with your arm relaxed and with your hand raised before they commit.

Worth settling before the stencil goes on

• Which way the head points when your arm is relaxed
• Whether the scales are rendered everywhere or only near the viewer
• How the tail resolves, since a tail that fades out looks unfinished
• Whether a rattlesnake carries associations you would rather avoid
• How the piece connects if you extend it into a sleeve later