63 Bear Tattoo Designs for Men

A symbol of confidence and commanding authority, a bear tattoo design ranks at the top of the food chain. You can find all kinds of bears while roaming the wild, such as the grizzly bear, black bear, brown bear, and polar bear. And now, DNA analysis has confirmed the Giant Panda bear is officially a bear as well.

The bear is an ultimate symbol of strength and confidence, although for the softer souls there is always the teddy bear tattoo . The mama bear is a nurturing and caring animal yet still willing to protect its young at any cost.

The bear can also symbolize solitude, rest, relaxation and transformation, which is why a bear tattoo idea is often associated with medicine and healing, and has a strong connection to Native American folklore. No matter what the bear may mean to you – whether it’s a cute bear tattoo or a fearsome roaring bear – you’re sure to enjoy this collection of the top 63 best bear tattoo design ideas.

These extraordinary pieces are just as interesting as it is to witness a bear up close. Get ready to be inspired by the beauty of nature below.

1. Panda Bear Design Ideas

A well etched Panda bear tattoo is badass. They are the embodiment of peaceful attitudes that somehow manage to coexist alongside furiously dangerous undercurrents. Their unquestionable might is tamed by a desire to pursue relaxation at all costs, and a talented artist can show this in a panda bear tattoo.

A looming physical presence can be tapered by a panda tattoo, especially since these giants are defined by an overwhelming theme of gentleness. As an added advantage, the black-and-white imprints are easy and affordable to execute. Vegetarians often explore panda ink as a way to show that eating meat is unnecessary, particularly since this is the only bear that lives as an herbivore, often accompanied by their favourite food, bamboo

2. Polar Bear Tattoos

The polar bear is a complex creature, used in body art to embody the tenacity of spirit needed to survive a barren landscape alone. The has a spiritual quality unmatched by nearly every creature in the tundra and beyond.

In recent years, the polar bear has also become a symbolic bear design representing the damage human beings have done to our planet. If you feel a deep connection to nature, there is no better way to show it than with the unfortunate mascot of climate change.

3. Bear Claw Tattoos

A boisterous bear claw tattoo is a cool insignia and popular ink choice. Bear claw tattoos are rambunctious and righteous!

Bears are renowned for their size and strength, but often people want to take a slightly different tack and take on a bear claw or bear paw tattoo. The pointed tips promise brutal intensity, implying a freshly shredded victim, all you have to do is throw in a little blood. Grisly carnage may also be presented for a defiantly deadly portrayal of the animal‘s strength.

The visage of a roaring bear can grimly finalize the bombastic fury. This type of illustration can look cool in a range of tattoo styles, and allow bear paw tattoos to show an interesting degree of application techniques in color or black and gray.

4. California Bear Tattoos

A California bear tattoo combines geographical patriotism with a bold bond to one of Earth’s most ferocious creatures. These grizzly bear tattoos carry plenty of austere symbolism that anyone from the west coast of Cal will admire, and that tattoo artist of all experiences should have in their portfolio.

For ink that packs a furious punch while also delivering an environmental message, guys everywhere are partaking in the brilliance of California bear body art. A lifelong affinity to the state is also enshrined by boldly reveling in the region’s most dominant creature.

5. Traditional Bear Tattoos

Traditional style tattoos has started to focus more on depictions of wild animals. Bears are a particularly common subject, and they are frequently depicted in the middle of a ferocious roar or as a spirit animal. The thick coat and wide teeth of a bear work well the traditional style, and the contrast between dark fur and a red mouth is very striking.

They definitely look cool, but a traditional black bear tattoo does more than just show off your animalistic side. Tattoos of these creatures actually contain a lot of symbolism in traditional artwork.

Norse mythology believed that Odin, the god of healing, knowledge, battle, sorcery, and death, often wandered the world while accompanied by a bear, and it’s a potent spirit animal in Native American tribal culture.

5. Tribal Bear Tattoos

Bear tattoos contain a great deal of symbolism in traditional tribal tattoo design. Many ancient cultures have legends that bears were connected to the spiritual world. They are often tattooed as links to strength, ferocity in battle, healing, and bravery.

The Native American Sioux have legends about a bear who travelled the world teaching the healing arts. Though bears are often seen as wise sages, they can be ferocious warriors, melding traditional aspects of care, protection, and wisdom with characteristics of power, strength, and savagery when used in a tribal bear tattoo.

6. Bears in Geometric Tattoo Art

Since the bear is also a highly aloof creature which hibernates in solitude during winter, the geometric tattoo can be a way of expressing the bear‘s introverted nature. The type and design of bear or bear paw you pick for your ink can also be a way of further customizing the meaning of your tattoo. A geometric bear tattoo is the perfect way to encapsulate a “gentle giant” of nature through the sleek, vibrant linework and use of color and shape.

7. Bear Skull Tattoo Idea

Due to its fiercely protective nature and natural rhythms of hibernation in the winter and timely spring awakening, the bear has come to represent a powerful connection with the earth’s forces. And just as death is as natural as birth, many have adopted the bear skull tattoo bear skull tattoo as a totem of strength in life as in death.

Often worn by solitary souls with an unwavering sense of social duty and ancestral pride-no matter where they hail from-the bear skull tattoo can be as ornate or simple as the wearer wishes.

8. Neo Traditional Bear Tattoos

Though it honors an animal of ancient spiritual value, the neo bear tattoo is absolutely in the moment and of the moment style-wise. Defined by a look and feel that could be lifted from any number of today’s on-trend illustrations and graphic novels, the neo traditional grizzly bear tattoo design is anything but primitive or outdated.

Native Americans believed that the bear represented courage, and stubbornness, and the mama bear represented unquestioning protection. If the bear‘s likeness appeals to you, then you are surely a person with similar principles and strengths.

9. Celtic Bear Tattoos

Celtic tradition honors the bear as the incarnation of the Primal Mother, to whom we are all children and therefore under her eternal protection and guidance. The Celts followed a faith that was tied to the earth and seasons; just as the bear takes to hibernation in winter so too did the Celtic people pass the cold, barren months in rest and reflection.