Top 37 Anti Possession Supernatural Tattoo Ideas [2022 Inspiration Guide]

Harkening back to one the most rugged archetypes on television, the anti possession tattoo sported by the Winchester brothers on “Supernatural” is staple of the shows fans.

When Dean and Sam Winchester first got the tattoos on the shows second season, it was meant as a permanent deterrent to demon possessions.

As lifelong professional demon hunters, the two men needed a sure-fire way to avoid this particular occupational hazard. Many die-hard fans sport the tattoo above their hearts just as the brothers do. Though as the tattoo has grown in popularity, others have ventured away from this and have gotten the tattoo in a broad range of sizes and locations.

The symbol itself harnesses the dark overtones of the show. The large pentacle forms a Celtic style “endless knot” meant to protect the wearer from evil. The pentacle is ringed by solid black, stylized flames. Occasionally, the design is topped with angel wings, the two symbols forming a heaven/hell dichotomy.

This theme has been one of the most captivating aspects of the long-lived paranormal show, it also makes for a very interesting piece of body art.

“Supernatural” producers are not ignorant of the impact this symbol has had on their loyal fan base. The shows self-awareness has more than once shown fiction fans of the parallel Supernatural books featured on the show, with the tattoo.

This is a black and gray tattoo that takes the pentacle image from the Supernatural television show and puts an interesting spin on the design. The essential elements in the tattoo are reproduced well: the lines in the pentacle are clean and bold, while the circle that completes the design is consistent and well-applied. The artist uses excellent black and gray shading to create this tattoo, while fine line work and gray wash are utilized to create the effect of the design being carved in stone on the wearer’s body. A surprising amount of texture is created through this technique and it is a testament to the skill of the artist.

This tattoo, prominently placed over the heart just like the Winchester brothers, is a good example of how other design elements can be successfully incorporated into an existing design. Again, here is the pentacle design, this time with wings that are reminiscent of the tribal tattoos popular in the early 2000’s. This tattoo is notable for its clean application and the high saturation in the black ink as well as the consistent and precise line work. It is also worth noting the expert skill required to create such a clean and almost perfect circle, and here the artist pulls it off flawlessly. This is a well-balanced tattoo that will proudly display the wearer’s love for this hit TV show.

This piece uses bold, solid black ink to perfectly capture this magic design. Once again, the key elements in this simple tattoo are well-applied, recreating this interesting design. The circle holding the pentacle is just about perfect, helping to create a balanced and pleasing design, while the lines that form the five-sided star are clean, bold and expertly applied. While there is quite a lot in this piece that works, there are a few small areas that could have been executed a bit better. Notably, the negative space circle that separates the flames from the pentagram is a bit uneven, actually disappearing completely at one point in the top right-hand portion of the tattoo. Despite some minor inconsistencies, this is a great tattoo that will display the wearer’s love for the show to anyone who sees it.

This is an interesting interpretation of the demon protection design, worn over the heart just like the heroes in Supernatural. Here, the artist uses a looser, more illustrative technique to add variations to the saturation and consistency of the ink, creating an interesting effect. This tattoo has a feeling of texture that is achieved through expert application and creates the effect a stencil, painted onto a wall that has worn away over time, giving this piece more character than some of the other more straight forward pentacle designs. While this may not be to everyone’s taste, the tattoo is clean, well-applied and is a testament to the artist’s skill and creativity.

This piece takes the Supernatural inspired design and uses some vibrant colors to create a more eye-catching tattoo. The black ink that makes up the pentagram design is well saturated, increasing the contrast that helps the colors to pop, and the line work in the pentacle is bold an even, perfectly creating this mystical symbol. The color in the flames is bright and well saturated, not suffering from the patchiness that can often afflict these lighter tones. The artist’s choice of foregoing a black outline for the flames is a clever choice that contrasts with the bold black in the rest of the design and helps the flames to stand out. It is also interesting the way the flames within the center of the design slightly follow the lines of the pentagram, creating a pleasing flow.

For this design, the artist skips color in favor of bold placement and large size for this simple but striking tattoo. The line work that makes up the pentacle is clean and consistent, with the artist using thinner lines for the pentagram itself that allows the portions of negative space to stand out. The circle that encloses the five-pointed star is smooth and balanced and does not suffer from the sloppiness that so often hurts simple designs like this. The black that makes up the outer edge of this piece is saturated, increasing the contrast with the wearer’s pale skin tone and helping the bold design stand out even more. This large, prominent tattoo will ensure that even casual observers are aware of his love for Supernatural.

This is a small but clean design that perfectly recreates this image while adding a few small details to help it stand out from similar tattoos. First off, the circle that forms the outline of this design is excellent; it is almost perfectly circular, which is no small feat for a tattoo artist. While it is this precision, along with the use of bold, clean line work, that helps make this a great tattoo, what really sets it apart is the clean and consistent shading in the surrounding flames. The gradation of tones in this small piece is impressive: the artist is able to go from almost fully saturated black at the bottom tips of the flames, all the way to the lightest of gray tones around the inside edge of the design.

Here we have a black and gray, full-body piece that incorporates this television sigil along with a number of different macabre and mystical elements to create a striking tattoo. In the center of the chest is the Supernatural design, however this time the artist incorporated the wings of a bat to further differentiate this design from similar tattoos. On either side of this pentacle are two skulls superimposed over designs reminiscent of sacred geometry that are applied using expert stipple shading and clean negative space. Along with these features, there is another skull, another pentacle as well as the hand of a sorcerer, all of which incorporate runes and glyphs that help tie these different mystical elements into a large, cohesive tattoo.

This is another piece that uses black and gray ink to create an interesting ode to the Winchester brothers. Here, the artist uses consistent shading and fine line work to recreate the effect of the symbol being chiseled into stone, adding an interesting dynamic to this tattoo. This effect is reinforced by the deliberately rough lines that make up the five-pointed star at the center of the piece, as well as the cracked and chipped texture on the circle around the pentagram. The artist uses red ink and a loose application in the script at the top of the design to create the effect of being written in blood. The script, Latin for “I will fear no evil” holds special significance in the show and further demonstrates the wearer’s love of the program.

This is a great design that chooses black and gray over color to commemorate the Winchester brothers’ battle with the supernatural. Despite the lack of color, the artist is able to create an interesting and dynamic tattoo through the expert use of a variety of techniques. The stipple work in this piece is skillfully applied, creating a gradation of density that pulls the eye into the center of the design, while the solid, bold lines that make up the outline of the piece add just the right amount of contrast to this clean tattoo. The lines that make up the five-pointed star are even and precise and the circle enclosing it is almost perfectly round, completing the tattoo.

Here is another Supernatural inspired design that eschews color in favor of the dynamic effect created with a variety of black and gray techniques. At the center of this clever design is the pentacle surrounded by flames, made up of clean, precise line work and densely packed stipple shading. Spiraling out from this deign are layers of curving lines that are reminiscent of optical illusions, and help to draw the eye around the entire tattoo. The variation in the density of the stipple work is impressive, creating a natural fade from solid black all the way down to negative space at the bottom edge of the piece. Also impressive are the layered spirals within the flames themselves and how they are deliberately out of synch with the external patterns, further enhancing the effect of an optical illusion.

This is an interesting chest piece that incorporates the Supernatural sigil with a number of different mystical elements to create a bold tattoo. The pentacle is placed over the heart, while opposite it is another sigil made up of different runes and symbols, with another mystical element at the center that looks suspiciously Crowley-esque. All of these different magik symbols are superimposed over a three-headed creature that appears to be comprised of birds and some nightmare creature with the tusks of an elephant.  There is a lot going on in this deeply personal tattoo, but the shading is clean and consistent and the bold, black line work in the different symbols and runes is precise and well-applied.

This is a clean tattoo that takes this simple design and adds a touch of color to help it stand out. The black ink in the flames is consistent and well-saturated, creating the perfect, bold frame for the pentacle at the center of the design. The line work that makes up the five-pointed star is clean and precise, and the use of red ink is an interesting choice that works well to help this design pop. While the general application in this tattoo is clean there is one mistake that stands out. Circles are notoriously difficult to tattoo, simply because any flaws or inconsistencies are instantly apparent, and this tattoo suffers from this common malady. The negative space between the flames and the pentacle enhances this effect and make the varying thickness more obvious. These faults don’t ruin this nice tattoo but serve as a reminder of how even simple designs can suffer from inaccurate details.

This tattoo uses black and gray shading to create the effect of the skin on the chest being torn, revealing the pentacle beneath. While the design and concept for this tattoo are interesting, the application here leaves something to be desired. The gray wash and shading aren’t bad, however, if the artist used a broader spectrum of tones they would be able to create a more striking tattoo; as it stands it feels a bit washed out. The same goes for the line work. A common saying in the tattoo world is “Bold Will Hold”, and here the lines are anything but bold. If the artist used a more deliberate application the entire tattoo would benefit. The good news is that all of these things can be fixed down the road since the design is good and the bones of a solid tattoo are already there.

Anti-Possession Tattoo FAQ’s

Do the actors who play Sam and Dean really have tattoos?

On the hit TV show Supernatural the main characters, Sam and Dean Winchester, have matching pentacle tattoos above their hearts that serve as protection from the demons they commonly fight. In real life the actors sport ink, though not the designs they wear onscreen. Jensen Ackles, who plays Sam Winchester, has a tattoo of a bluebird as a dedication to his daughter, although that’s not the only ink he has.

Recently, at the wedding reception of Jeffery Dean Morgan—who plays the onscreen father to the Winchester boys—to his longtime sweetheart, there was a tattoo artist with a small list of designs that guests could get inked to permanently commemorate the love of bride and groom. Padalecki, Ackles, and Morgan all decided to get matching crown tattoos to commemorate both their onscreen and off-screen relationships.

Morgan has since told media that the crowns—designs pulled from Jean-Michel Basquiat’s portfolio—represent the trio as “Three Kings”, with the “W” within the design being a subtle nod to their roles as the Winchester clan. While these tattoos aren’t designed to fend of demonic possession, they do serve as a permanent tribute to the group’s strength and unity.