Smiley face tattoo: best ideas and meaning

Smiley face tattoo: meaning and symbolism

The smiley is one of the few genuinely modern symbols in tattooing – the yellow circle with two dots was drawn in 1963 and within a few decades became a universal sign of good humour. Emoji picked up where it left off and now form a language nearly everyone reads.

As a tattoo the smiley mostly stands for a decision to take life a little more lightly. It also works as a quiet marker that someone has come through a hard stretch – which is why sad or split faces appear alongside the cheerful ones.

Modern meaning and personal reading

Most often the meaning is private: a specific emoji from a conversation with someone close, a symbol that means something between you, or a reminder of one particular moment. That is exactly why this motif is usually small and discreet – it is not meant to be explained.

The second group is matching tattoos, where two or more people carry the same emoji. An addition – a name, a date, a short line – turns a common shape into something only yours.

Styles and design variations

Our gallery is dominated by small work in black line – a simple outline of a face on a finger, wrist or ankle, often done in a few minutes. The classic yellow smiley is the second most common version, and there the colour is effectively part of the symbol.

We also do pixel treatments nodding to early digital graphics, compositions of several emoji side by side, and smileys built into a larger motif. At really small sizes the facial detail has to be simplified – under about two centimetres two dots and a line will merge. We tattoo smileys most often on fingers, wrists, ankles and behind the ear.

Our artists like to experiment, and they will build you something that still makes sense to you years from now.