Aquarius tattoo ideas, meaning and designs

What people want from an Aquarius tattoo

The traits astrologers attach to Aquarius are independence, invention, a humanitarian streak and a habit of standing slightly outside the group. Clients often want something that looks modern rather than mythological, which is why the plain glyph does better here than on any other sign and why geometric and line only treatments are so common.

When people do want an image, it is usually the jar and the pour rather than the figure. A tipped vessel with water becoming stars, or a hand pouring into nothing, both read as the sign and avoid the difficulty of drawing a whole person at a size that fits an arm.

The glyph, the water bearer and the faint stars

Two wavy lines sound simple and are not. Both lines need matching peaks, matching amplitude and a constant gap, and any wobble in one shows up against the other. Ask for a stencil rather than freehand. The other detail that matters is the gap: below 2 mm the two lines will look like one thick zigzag after twenty years of ink spread.

The constellation is dim. Sadalsuud is the brightest at magnitude 2.9, with Sadalmelik just behind at 2.95, so no star carries the pattern. The recognizable part is the Water Jar, a small Y shaped group of four stars, with a stream of fainter stars running down from it. That stream is the most interesting thing to tattoo and it needs length.

Ways people build it

• Glyph alone, 2 to 5 cm, wrist, forearm or behind the ear
• Glyph drawn wide as a band across the collarbone or the spine
• Water Jar group with the star stream running down, 15 cm or more
• A tipped vessel pouring water that turns into stars, 12 to 20 cm
• Water bearer as a full figure, 15 cm minimum, thigh or upper back

Size, placement and pain

The glyph is horizontal, which opens up placements that vertical glyphs cannot use. The collarbone, the underside of the forearm, the back of the neck and the sternum all take it well. Pain runs from about 3 out of 10 on the back of the arm to 7 on the sternum, where the skin sits straight over bone with nothing underneath.

Keep the glyph at 2 cm minimum and give it real width, since a squashed version loses the wave rhythm. The star stream is long and suits the spine, the ribs or the outer forearm at 15 cm or more. A pouring figure at 15 to 25 cm is four to six hours of illustrative work, so $450 to $800 in most American cities.

Styles that suit it, and how it ages

Fine line, minimalist and geometric treatments all suit Aquarius. Watercolor is more tempting here than on other signs because of the water imagery, and it does fade faster: pale washes usually need a touch up somewhere between year eight and year twelve, more often on sun exposed skin. If you want color that lasts, a single saturated accent holds up far better than a spread of pale washes.

Ageing comes down to the gap between the two lines. Ink spreads outward a fraction each decade, so two hairlines 1.5 mm apart become one band. Ask for 2.5 to 3 mm of separation and a line weight that matches on both. For the star stream, keep dots at 1.5 mm and take the design to a licensed artist who will set the spacing for your skin and for the curve of the area.