When it comes to getting a tattoo, everyone has a personal reason behind each and every decision, from the style of art to the person's relationship with the tattoo artist, not to mention the subject matter itself. Some of the food tattoos we've found belong to nutritionists, who care immensely about food as a major part of their career choices, while other people chose foods that have a special significance to them and their family members (we saw several lasagna tattoos with the word MOM over them — really, is there anything cuter than the idea of a tattoo celebrating a family favorite this way?). Of course, chefs and others in the food industry would find these tattoos make perfect sense. Some of these are clearly just perfectly decorative, while they might also celebrate a small moment — a special ice cream cone shared with a best friend, maybe, or a box of macarons that symbolize taking a little bit of time out of the day for something purely pleasurable.
Whatever the reason behind these food tattoos, food is one of the few things that can draw people of different cultures and backgrounds together — no matter whether we can understand each other's languages or not, we can always share a meal together, after all. This also means food make special sense as a basis for ink designs, and is one of the reasons the tattoos in this list are of food from around the globe.
While food is an accessible subject for a tattoo, it's far from the only one we love. For anyone considering a first tattoo, check out as many first tattoo ideas as possible before taking the plunge. For those wanting a subtle nod to something monumental, a small wrist tattoo might be just right. Moms who want to get inked can also get plenty of inspiration to honor their children or their mama status.
This Strawberry Tattoo
How incredibly photorealistic is this amazing strawberry? It's positively gleaming. "Looks just like the one I bit into earlier… perfect," as one commenter said, and we couldn't agree more — just like the real thing!
This Amazing Armful of Produce
This arm covered in fresh fruits and vegetables looks like it's basically fallen off a farmers market stand, it's so realistic looking. As one commenter says, "That's dangerously realistic, stay away from hungry vegetarians!" Um, us. She means us.
This Tiny Ice Cream Cone
How totally freaking cute is this tiny little ice cream cone? It's a delicious-looking soft-serve, and it looks just like our absolutely favorite summer treat. Is there any better way to remember that good summer days are coming?
This Adorable Dim Sum Tattoo
We love these angry dim sum. They look so disgruntled! But those perfect little steamed dumplings are so tasty, we always want to eat them, and so we'd be angry, too. These are absolutely adorable.
This Yummy Nutella Tattoo
What is better than Nutella on a crepe? Or an apple? Or a banana? Or a sandwich? In truth, nothing. Nutella is a food of the gods. But a Nutella tattoo, to help us remember that this perfect treat is out there, is darn close.
This Cool Pasta Shapes Tattoo
We love the cool black linework of this tattoo, which combines four kinds of pasta. We love the bowtie and the macaroni especially, but really, they're all great — and the minimalist style is perfect for pasta.
This Amazing Bacon Tattoo
Who doesn't love waking up to some frying bacon? This tattoo is a great reminder of one of our favorite things in life … although if we had it, we'd have to eat bacon basically all day. As one commenter says, "And now I’m hungry for bacon…"
This Luscious-Looking Burger
This tattoo is done in the neotraditional style, which really works for it. We love how crisp the lettuce, onion, and tomato look, and how melty the cheese is — as one commenter said, "It’s so rad, I want to take a bite!"
These Maple Syrup-Drizzled Pancakes
We love this incredibly tall stack of pancakes, and it makes us really, really ready for breakfast-for-dinner night — or just breakfast for breakfast morning, really. How great do those berries and rivulets of maple syrup look on there?
This Delicious-Looking Cake Tattoo
How great-looking is this old-school cake tattoo? We love the strawberry filling in the vanilla cake, and the chocolate frosting looks great — as does the little cherry on top and a bit of whipped cream with sprinkles. We'll take two, please.
This Juicy-Looking Orange Tattoo
How incredibly realistic is this orange tattoo? The shadows make it look like it's basically alive. While oranges are always beautiful, we rarely think of them as really appetizing, but this one looks just looks delicious.
This Adorable Ramen Bowl
There's really no better, more warming meal on the planet than a big bowl of ramen. This one is super cute, and features seaweed, an egg, scallions, pork, and narutomaki, a kind of swirled fish sarimi.
This Hyperrealistic Cupcake
This looks so completely amazing. It looks like it has blueberry frosting, and the blueberry is all juicy and perfect-looking — as is the strawberry slice and the orange. The cupcake itself looks fluffy and like the ideal of a cupcake, too.
This Gleaming Sushi Tattoo
How perfect is this sushi tattoo? It looks like a piece of tuna nigiri, and we absolutely adore it because it's glistening and looking so appetizing. As one commenter says, "Ugh this makes me crave sushi so hard."
This Cartoon Popcorn
This popcorn is too cute for words — we love its happy little smiling face, which is exactly how we feel when we get a big bag of popcorn at the movies. It's adorable, and it reminds us of one of our favorite treats — win/win.
This Pink-Glazed Doughnut
We can pretend to like any flavor of doughnut over whatever the actual flavor of "pink" is (it's not really strawberry, it's just… sweet, right?), but the truth is, at heart, we'll always be kids who love a pink doughnut with sprinkles the most.
This Smorgasbord of Desserts
What even are half of these, other than incredibly tasty-looking? The kiwi-topped pie is unlike anything we've ever seen in real life, but we want to try it — and we love the ice cream, doughnut, macaron, chocolate chip cookie … the rest of it.
This Perfect Little Artichoke Tattoo
What other flowers do we eat regularly? We love artichokes so much for their sweet flavor, and the fact that they're a great source of fiber … and also they're just really beautiful. What a gorgeous tattoo this one is.
This Amazing Collection of Fruits & Veggies
A whole fruit and vegetable sleeve? That's pretty darn cool, if anyone asks us. The broccoli looks incredibly realistic, and the avocado looks exactly right to spread on some toast. The strawberry and pomegranate are positively glistening, too.
This Clever Pretzel Tattoo
We love how salty and yummy this big pretzel looks — and we love the message, "Don't Get It Twisted." The big pieces of rock salt look so good, we just want to lick it off. If that weren't weird because it's on someone's arm, that is.
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