Top 43 Bible Verse Tattoo Ideas [2020 Inspiration Guide]

To have a constant reminder of your faith, there is no better choice than Bible verse tattoos. By picking your favorite quotes from the Scripture, it is easy to ensure that God will be with you at all times.

Tattoos used to be part of an underground alternative scene, so Christians rarely pursued ink; luckily, this is all changing in the 21st century. As a result, worshipers are finally getting in on the fun too. Obviously, there are seemingly endless choices within the Holy Book.

Exodus and Corinthians are always popular choices, but old-school Christians will probably prefer John and Luke. For a darker sense of worship, you can go with Revelations or Numbers. To throw in a dash of irony, you can even get the quote from Leviticus that prohibits tattoos!

If English seems too blatant, then why not get the original Greek text instead? Of course, Hebrew is also an option for those proud of their Jewish heritage. Mormon tattoos are also possible, but they are far less common these days. You may not find God in the following assortment of tattoos, but you will definitely find the next best thing: a stalwart sense of style!

Bible Verse Tattoo Ideas

This is a well delivered bible verse tattoo in the style of a 3D sketch tattoo. The key element id to have the skin look likes it’s been torn away to have the ‘stone’ of the tattoo revealed.

This Chicano style hand tattoo bookmarks a specific part of the bible for acknowledgement. In this piece, the shading allows greater depth in the tattoo and fills out the available space because the font is quite skinny.

This bible verse is etched with a nice, flowing script. It’s also surrounded by an effectively drawn rosary cross and the head of a rose. The color elements of the rose are unusual, but well done.

When Bible verses are tattooed the vast majority of them use those bomb old school fonts. This is a cool example. Here, Psalm 23:4 is permanently etched using a nice variation on an archaic script over the subject’s chest.

Another Chicano style ink piece, however, this one both acknowledges the Bible verse and puts part of it down on the skin of both hands.

This large, sleeve style piece is excellent. Rather than using a single font throughout the verse, the artist has created good interplay by utilizing numerous contrasting fonts in the image creation. It also uses some blue highlighting color cleverly.

The bicep is a great skin canvas for tattooing script. This traditional style font flows beautifully to create a bookmark to a passage from Philippians: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

This specific Bible verse is very popular for sinners and saints alike. This large back piece is a well-executed version, focusing on the BLESSED in a deftly shaded Circus font. From there, an old school font in flat black is employed to finalize the quote.

A beautifully drawn take on the “Lord is my Shepherd” verse. This is a black line work tattoo etched in an unusual standalone spot: the upper chest and shoulder. The text is packed tightly together but flows nicely across the skin.

Another tightly drawn piece of script, this tattoo uses a beautiful, seemingly handwritten font to express the Bible verse tattoo style. The artist uses good spacing in the horizontal negative space to give the script room to operate on the skin.

This Bible verse uses a wide array of fonts and mastery of gray scale shading to create an exceptional half sleeve. While many different fonts are employed and they often contrast in a busy fashion, they are so well drawn, and shaded with detail to make the entire piece fit together epically.

This is an unusual piece because the entire text is capitalized. Mostly, tattoos featuring a heavy body of writing tend to follow sentence formatting principles. This Bible verse tattoo is successful because the artist has chosen a capitalized text that works across the entire font.

An interesting Bible script due to the use of an angle in etching the tattoo. Rather than roll across the skin in horizontal fashion, the free-flowing cursive is enhanced by the degree it’s tilted in delivery. It’s a simple adjustment to normal style that has a noticeable result.

Another Philippians 4:13 but the quoted bible verse this time instead of the bookmark reference. However, it employs a similar flowing cursive.

You look at the text first, and notice it’s tightly packed, well drawn, and lively. Then you get to the bottom and realize that it’s the entirety of Psalm 23 tattooed down the right side of the subject’s body. It’s a top-quality tattoo showing off precision in shape, flow, spacing, and concentration.

This Bible verse tattoo combines traditional cursive with the cross image. The artist has created interesting shade to emphasize the edge of the cross and make it seem as if the skin has been pinched.

This flowing cursive bible verse tattoo is deployed on an angled patch of the subject’s chest. It’s tight, compact work that would have been applied with a single needle.

This is a beautifully rendered piece of cursive text referencing Psalm 140:4. The verse begins with: Keep me safe, Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent, who devise ways to trip my feet.” The subject of this tattoo has a ready reminder on his chest that God is watching out for him is he walks his path through life.

The cursive in this text is elegant and combination with the unusual angle of the tattoo flowing up from the ribs makes for an interesting artwork. The flourishes above and below the flowing text provides a sense of balance for the image.

This is a proto Chicano bookmark for Psalm 27. The Chicano style uses that graffiti art style in the sharp, angular cursive and gradient shading within the text and numbers.

A matching set of cursive texts on both limbs to mirror the message that God has chosen his warriors to bear the hardest burdens. It’s a popular Bible verse tattoo for Christian servicemen, and from those who’ve been forced to move on after tragedy.

Another example of the sketch style tattoo which uses the stone underneath the subject’s skin to display his Bible verse. This style of tattoo is also often used in the bio-mechanical genre to show the machine beneath the flesh.

The interesting element of this bible verse hand tattoo is the deployment of the Ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus symbol. The Eye of Horus traditionally symbolized rebirth and regeneration. After Horus’ eye was destroyed by god of chaos Set, his mother Isis restores it to him to continue battle. There are many parallels between God, Mary, and Jesus with Horus, Isis, and Osiris in ancient literature.

Wow. This is an intense tattoo. The main image is a classical mythology style angel, supported by small cursive text delivering god’s message. It looks as though the sleeve continues below by using negative space to highlight the mark of the devil and possibly, a version of the fallen angel as well (you can just make out a horn on the top of the very bottom figure’s head). The detail of this tattoo stands out – note the cross, and wings of the angel – as does the expert use of shading and space to create a well-rounded artwork.

This an interesting free hand piece of Bible verse cursive. The wobble, and disparate spacing inside the text is evidence that the outline wasn’t stenciled on to the skin. One thing is certain; the work is a great improvement over the ‘cold as’ text towards the bottom of the man’s wrist.

This bible verse tattoo, rather than go in the stone tablet direction, has create a variety of different pieces of paper – shaded in muted gray and black to maintain an aged look – to create the backdrop for the text.

A nicely deployed tattoo etched in to join up the bible text with other religious work on the subject’s left bicep and arm. The artist has taken pains to link up the disparate pieces with elegant scrollwork bordering.

The intentionally jagged cursive of this piece is unique – it could be the actual handwriting of the subject. The artist adds in some small pieces of shading to help fill the image around the text

Psalm 27:1 is “the Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear?” It illustrates the choice of chest tattoo image. The artist the bookmark Bible verse to augment the beautifully executed black and gray lighthouse. The shading in this tattoo is excellent quality – the waves and clouds provide contrasting patterns, helping give added context and depth to the whole image.

A nice cursive tattoo – although sticklers for grammar may have an issue with each word being capitalized. The script is tightly bunched on the skin yet flows quite cleanly for it to be understood easily by anybody close enough to read it. The choice to do the script in flat black line work rather than a combination of text and shading is the smart choice.

The clean, crisp cursive is emphasized by the gentle curve across this subject’s chest. He opts to use the verses opening line in conjunction with the bookmark for the rest of the quote.

This is a funky font. The bible verse tattoo here is crisp, clean, and easy to read. The cursive script provides some nice points in which to add flourishing touches.

This chest, shoulder and bicep tattoo combines text with shading and a religious image. The cloud shading is necessary, and executed well, otherwise the elements wouldn’t be able to join up clearly. The artist’s emphasis of long, flowing f characters are a nice added touch to a technically solid artwork.

A big, bold Chicano graffiti style Bible bookmark of Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” The use of negative space to form the 43:2 makes for a nice contrast of the gray and black theme.

Another Philippians 4:13 Bible bookmark. This one is beautiful, reminiscent of those medieval scripts in Latin that monks used to draw in gold leaf paint, letter by letter even though they couldn’t read the text.

This is a stunning bible verse tattoo. The bookmark –another reference to Psalm 23:4 – is done with a staggering amount of detail. There is little margin for error in the small gaps between black line work and slightly fuzzy black shade, but the execution is perfect.

What a cool, unique piece – it verges on the trash polka style of abstract image combined with black and red color, however it’s just orthodox enough to avoid that genre. This tattoo combines a heavy, stylized cross with reference to Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This is excellently done.

A head tattoo of Psalms 91, with the assumption being that there is a massive Capital P under his thick, straight hair, is an impressive statement.

This is top quality on both leg tattoos in combination. One limb features a beautiful, painstakingly executed watercolor cross – a difficult and complex tattoo create in black ink – with the bible verse tattoo to match on his other leg. The use of heavy black in the typewritten text creates a great, heavy emphasis of the black ink for this tattoo as well. This is a gold star artwork!

The skin of the arm is rent, revealing a cleverly etched script on the stone tablet beneath. This is an expertly delivered take on the biomechanical/sketch style of tattoo. The key to success for this piece is the detail in the rent flesh shading, and how it opposes the tight, black, script.

Simple, but effective cursive bible verse script. This piece uses black line tattoo to flow nicely, the script curving and following below the shape of his clavicle.

This piece engages a different font for each line and does a good job in utilizing markedly types of script to create variety in the overall tattoo and create a natural border with the words and flourishes. The blue highlight is a nice addition to soften the script a little.