Compass Tattoo Designs
The rose on its own, and the rose carrying something else: mountains, a wave, a globe, an anchor, roses. Sixteen drawings and eight of them on skin.
Every tattoo image on this site is a generated illustration. None of it is work by this artist and none of it records a client result.
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Classic rose
Design idea. A drawing the artist can make for you.
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Mountains inside
Design idea. A drawing the artist can make for you.
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Nautical rope
Design idea. A drawing the artist can make for you.
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With an anchor
Design idea. A drawing the artist can make for you.
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Compass and sun
Design idea. A drawing the artist can make for you.
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With a crescent moon
Design idea. A drawing the artist can make for you.
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With a feather
Design idea. A drawing the artist can make for you.
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Mountains behind
Design idea. A drawing the artist can make for you.
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Classic, on a forearm
Design idea. A generated rendering of this design on skin. Not a client and not healed work.
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Minimal, on a wrist
Design idea. A generated rendering of this design on skin. Not a client and not healed work.
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Rope, on an upper arm
Design idea. A generated rendering of this design on skin. Not a client and not healed work.
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Mountains, on a calf
Design idea. A generated rendering of this design on skin. Not a client and not healed work.
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Wave, on a forearm
Design idea. A generated rendering of this design on skin. Not a client and not healed work.
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On a shoulder blade
Design idea. A generated rendering of this design on skin. Not a client and not healed work.
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Globe, on a thigh
Design idea. A generated rendering of this design on skin. Not a client and not healed work.
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With roses, on an ankle
Design idea. A generated rendering of this design on skin. Not a client and not healed work.
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Compass tattoo designs with meaning
Most people looking at compass tattoos want to know what one says before they commit. The short answer is finding your way, and usually your way back. These six show how what sits with the compass changes that, and which readings are old.
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Classic rose
The way home. The compass rose comes from sea charts, where it showed a navigator the directions, and sailors wore it for a safe return. Direction in life is the modern metaphor built on it.
The compass, and where north is Send this design with your enquiry
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Nautical rope
The rope ring keeps the sea in it, and keeps the design close to the sailors' flash it came from. The plainest version of the old reading.
The compass, and where north is Send this design with your enquiry
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With an anchor
Two sailor marks with two jobs: the compass for direction, the anchor for holding steady. Together they are usually read as knowing where you are going and staying steady on the way.
The compass, and where north is Send this design with your enquiry
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Mountains inside
Travel and the outdoors, or a particular climb. A modern design with no tradition behind the pairing, so the mountains can be a real range you can name.
The compass, and where north is Send this design with your enquiry
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Globe
Travel, and for many Filipino families the way home from somewhere far. The Philippines sends more seafarers to sea than almost any other country, and for them this is the oldest reading worn for a new reason.
The compass, and where north is Send this design with your enquiry
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Minimal
Four points and nothing else: north, south, east and west. It drops the letters and the fine points that soften first on skin, and keeps the idea of direction in its simplest form.
The compass, and where north is Send this design with your enquiry
Worth knowing before you choose
Not one compass here has a letter on it. A compass is usually drawn with N, S, E and W around the rim, and those are the first thing to go soft on skin, because four small characters sitting on a curve need more room than the design tends to give them. They are also the part of a drawing that has to be exactly right, since a letter that has spread is not a mark that aged, it is a mistake. If you want the letters, they can be drawn in, and the honest version of that conversation is that the compass then needs to be bigger than you were probably picturing.
Read before you choose
More design ideas
- Geometric Tattoo Designs 24 designs
- Arm and Armband Tattoo Designs 26 designs
- Forearm Tattoo Designs 24 designs
- Wolf Tattoo Designs 24 designs
Or describe what you actually want
None of these has to be it. Say what is closest, what you would change, where it goes and roughly how big, and the drawing comes back before anything is booked.