Top 63 Blackwork Tattoo Ideas [2020 Inspiration Guide]

Neo-tribal tattoos are the hottest sensation of the 21st century, and men everywhere are undergoing extensive metamorphoses with these glorious post-modern patterns. The ingenious ink masterpieces are also known as blackwork tattoos, and they are literally changing everything!

Blackwork tattoos are the sign of a true tattoo god! Nothing can top the futuristic prowess of these complex concepts.

These creations represent a zenith of artistry for the entire industry of body modification. Intensely rich layers of geometry can be seamlessly melded together in an unprecedented fashion. Guys can truly show off their exotic supernatural style with the revolution of blackwork ink!

Tons of these innovative tattoos take inspiration from indigenous cultures, so they are intrinsically infused with spiritual significance. In fact, they allow a man to flaunt his status as a bona fide warrior.

Naturally, these dramatically attractive tattoos function best as sleeves. Bodybuilders often use these macho patterns to draw attention to their arms’ muscularity.

In the end, gentlemen of any brethren can rock blackwork tattoos for a dynamically masculine impact. The effect will be positive in almost any arena, so prepare for a grand reception in every room.

As you will see in our visual guide, these cunning beauties have extremely manly power!

Blackwork Tattoo Ideas

The flow between fat black fill and negative space is made possible thanks to this ink’s clean black lines in between. The shape of the curves work well on the middle of the subject’s arm, while the shoulder pattern has a sweet tribal vibe. The black fill has been done with single needle and would have required a long time to execute.

This is a remarkable piece of blackwork tattoo. The geometric tone is intensified by brilliantly detailed, looping line work. The artist’s technical skill is exemplified by the crisp joining of lines with black fill. The ink’s placement is also well done. The oddly shaped pattern fits into the awkward back shoulder zone cleanly and efficiently.

The artist effectively incorporated a range of styles to build a spectacular chest tattoo linking brilliantly with other work. While still unfinished, you can already see the impressive cover up on the left chest that once filled will be completely unrecognizable behind geometric pattern. The use of a gray, almost water color effect in the right hand shading is extremely unique and looks fantastic.

Such an amazing level of pattern and detail in this brilliant blackwork tattoo. The varying lines and angles are reminiscent of construction or galvanized fencing – not something you’d usually find in body art. The artist’s level of concentration is tremendous to be able to keep the lines strong, crisp, and interconnecting. Also like how it matches up with other unique blackwork expressions on the subject’s right arm.  

This half sleeve tattoo shows great contrast between a blackwork geometric base and innovative dark gray alt fill. The temptation would have been to deliver the overlaying pattern in negative space or bright color, however the flat gray ink is exceptional working against the hexagonal discs.

Fantastic use of shape and line to augment the heavy black fill aspects. The artist has been able to fashion a great piece by utilizing the natural curve of muscle and bone to add flow. The crisp, clean lines are excellent foils for the negative space alternate shading. Having them join up into a cool pattern at the back of the subject’s head is a great choice, like adding gummy bears to ice cream.

A wonderful chest piece calling on large, bold interpretation of the traditional tribal arrowhead motif with geometric elements. The artist’s use of dotwork shade support gives the patterns a fresh, clean style that contrasts well with the neg space and 3D black ink. The upper arm and chest are filled with sharpie thick flat black, allowing the patterns to track towards a central point based near the subject’s armpit.

A pizza with the lot style blackwork tattoo that is tremendously ambitious. For the most part it’s successful, particularly the central alternating geometric patterns of shapes built with line work and negative space bookended by mean looking Chinese dragons (likely these were prior tattoos that acted as anchors for the new ink). Some of the shade fills – bottom triangles and thick black ink breasts – could be improved. They may benefit from another session or two to touch up and build a more even coverage.

Wow. This unbelievably bad ass tattoo exemplifies the absolute best of gradient shading. The resulting ink is like when you go to a paint center to find the perfect color for your walls and are met with hundreds of color cards that start at one end of the shade spectrum and go through to the opposite end. Not only is the dotwork shade technique flawless (not to mention time consuming and expensive) but the use of flowing the shade bands into the eye type top pattern makes for a lower arms sleeve of brilliant clarity.

This elbow tattoo is the type of ink you where you don’t get the full picture of until you see it in motion (so we’ll just have to make do!) It’s designed to move and flow along with the elbow. The ink itself is a cool expression of thick blackwork tattoo with a Japanese calligraphy aesthetic. It’s like the subject has been tagged with a horsehair paintbrush instead of a modern tattoo rig. 

A cover up tattoo can be boss level awesome as this mix of blackwork and negative space shows. The original upper arm piece has been colored in with sharpie, but instead of leaving it at that the subject and artist have delivered ingenious negative space additions, such as the saw tooth triangles and alternating line work. The black cover up also works in partnership with the brilliant shoulder art which is a mix of geometric and mandala style.

Surprisingly, a full arm of black ink can be just as exciting as a multicolored explosion. This blackwork tattoo features flawless use of the negative space principle. On the lower sleeve Nordic runes mingle with bands, while the upper cursive is an excellent ode to the elements.

This blackwork tattoo is essentially a pair of geometric tattoos linked by a massive stretch of black ink and is likely a cover up. It’s a well executed piece of body art with cleverly designed hexagons dotwork and negative space.

I have no idea what this blackwork tattoo is meant to symbolise or what it is. From a technical standpoint it’s brilliantly etched with horizontal black ink hashes expertly overlaying negative space and then filled with heavy black.

This is a great particle separating blackwork tattoo. The artist has shown great technical skill with the dotwork – it’s clean, fresh, and moves deftly away from the base black ink to become an eye catching lower arm piece.

This is such a high resolution piece of art it looks like it’s come straight from an inkjet printer. The contrast between the light and dark along the length of the sleeve shows amazing skill and reminds me of the internal circuitry of a computer system.

An impressive array of blackwork tattoo. This too has computer hardware imagery in the negative space, however the subject has mixed it up with other elements, such as the Roman numerals for 23 and the more random geometric shapes. This is intense, highly detailed tattooing despite having so much flat black ink in the art work.

Another beautifully etched tattoo that transitions from flat black at the top of the sleeve down to the geometric mix of black and star patterns. It’s expertly crafted and looks fantastic from both a design and technical standpoint. The artist’s choice to fashion the tattoo in strips works – the unblemished skin forms a low key contrast to the detail and precision of the art.

Another sleeve piece mixing bands, dominated by one huge black image. The heaviness is alleviated by the clever dotwork sun pattern on the upper arm. It’s like a black pathway leading on to a stylish mosaic courtyard.

The blackwork in this leg tattoo is designed to show the darkness at the depths of a forest. From this darkness you’re able to notice a variety of well etched tree tops and circling birds flying at night in front of a full moon. Also like the ink splatter technique tagged onto the bottom to give the art a cool alternate lower border.

This subject’s arm has nearly been inked out completely. It’s a hard core piece of blackwork, lightened a little by small strips of contrasting negative space. It’s simple, painstaking work that manages to look eye catching.

This almost fully black arm is a heavy cover up on old work. There must have been a lot of depth and detail to the original piece in order to essentially paint over it. There are cool alternate patterns for the work though – the alternating cogs on the elbow and geometry pattern break up the black in patches, giving the arm some sizzle.

This is a killer upper body of black ink. Everywhere you look there are exceptional patterns of either black or negative space, with dotwork threaded in to liven up the detail. The child’s head is spectacular – a ‘floating’ black line tattoo over the top of mandala style dotwork – while the various tribal designs are crafted with clarity and skill. The coolest part of this tattoo however is the right arm chock full of gray scale Rubik’s cubes, a task almost as as time consuming to complete as the epic tattoo.