58+ Best Friend Tattoo Ideas For Unique Personal Expression

Like your friendship, best friend tattoos last forever. Best friend necklaces are for kids. Increasingly, real ride or die friends are paying homage to their friendship with ink. That could mean pieces that join when you are together, mirror images that serve as a reminder of each other when you are apart, or a design that is distinct and personal with a meaning that is clear only to the two of you. If you and your BFF are looking to make it official, then check out our gallery to get some good inspiration.

Whether you are planning your first ink or adding to an extensive collection, this curated lookbook features 58 distinct designs to inspire your next tattoo appointment.

1. Elephants Never Forget Their Best Friends

The friends that chose these tattoos want the world to know that their love is as immovable as the elements. One wears the mountains. The other wears the ocean. Both are forces of nature, bound by their friendship but made stronger by it, too.

2. Twin Lotus Flower Best Friend Tattoos

Wildflowers are a popular matching tattoo design for free spirits. Here, a pair of soulmates have chosen matching thistle and wildflower bouquets. The message is clear; their friendship is natural, beautiful, and strong like the flowers they favor.

3. The Sun and The Moon Friend Tattoo Ideas

It’s hard to say what specifically inspired this fun dinosaur themed tattoo. Maybe the friends watched Land Before Time together. Or maybe, like so many other people, they just like dinosaurs. While the tattoos share their size and placement, one friend has a triceratops and the other a stegosaurus.

4. Tied Together Forever Friendship Tattoo

Many siblings share a family tradition of fighting over a wishbone. These friends pay homage to that tradition with a tiny wishbone tattoo. Placed near the site of a real wishbone, this design promises good luck to the women that wear it.

5. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough Friend Tattoo Ideas

While best friends are usually seen in pairs, thismatching tattooproves that sometimes more is better. These three BFFs chose matching floral bouquets. But their individuality is honored too, as each friend chose a different flower to represent them in the bouquet.

6. Yin and Yang Triangle Tats for Best Friends

Lightning represents many things. In mythology, it is the weapon of the god Zeus. In pop culture, it might be a sports team, superhero, or brand logo. It’s also the telltale scar of The Boy Who Lived and a clever nod to these friends’ shared love for Harry Potter.

7. Cute Idea: Some Kind of Wonderful BFF Crystal Tattoo for Best Friends

The pinky swear is a gesture familiar to kids the world over. It’s a binding promise to keep your word. These friends wear that commitment on their sleeves. As a tattoo, the pinky swear speaks of their enduring loyalty, trust, and unbreakable love.

8. Our Friendship Grows like Wild Flowers Matching Tattoos for Best Friends

Each of these watercolor heart tattoos is a beautiful piece all on its own. A pretty pastel palette makes them distinctly feminine, but also makes them an obvious match. One friend wears a frame that looks almost biomorphic while the other wears the heart that completes the puzzle.

9. I Dino What I’d Do Without You Friend Tattoo Ideas

Monarch butterfly tattoos are pretty and popular. It’s no surprise that friends would agree to get matching butterfly matching tattoo designs. At face value, butterflies are timeless and inoffensive. Symbolically, they may represent the way their wearers’ have grown together with time and wisdom.

10. Small TattoosIdea: A Wishbone Your Heart Makes Friend Tattoo Ideas

Science nerds will appreciate the straightforward simplicity of these Saturn tattoos. Maybe they are just a subtle nod to the friends’ sci-fi interests. Or maybe they are a reference to the zodiac sign Capricorn. Either way, they serve as a sweet reminder of their absent friend.

11. A Flower for Each Friend Matching Tattoos for Best Friends

Friendships are full of secrets. That’s what makes these behind-the-ear squiggle tattoos so clever. Are they important initials, or a symbol that means something only to them? They’re not telling, making these unique but discrete tats just another secret that they share.

12. Earth and Water Elemental Best Friend Tattoos

A geometric turtle design is striking in its ingenuity but takes up very little space. One friend wears it on their wrist. The other wears it on their ankle. Theankle tattoois easily concealed but when revealed makes the viewer feel as if they’ve been let in on a whimsical secret.

13. A Secret Only We Know

A stand of three trees represents three friends or siblings. Thetree tattoodesign pays homage to the strength and durability of their love. Two of the friends wear the tattoo on their arms for the world to see while the other keeps hers close to her heart.

14. Pinky Swear to Love You ForeveSleeve Tattoo

In flowers, the color pink represents innocence and joy. The orchid, in contrast, represents strength and beauty. Pink orchids, then, are the perfect tattoo choice for complex women. The wearers of these sophisticated flowers find power in embracing their femininity.

15. Lightning Strikes Twice Harry Potter Tattoos for Best Friends

The sun and the moon are inextricably linked. These tattoos are further linked by sharing an ocean setting. What many don’t realize is that while the moon cannot shine without the sun, the moon also exerts more influence on the ocean tides than the sun does.

16. Matching Tattoo Design: Double Monarch Butterfly Wrist Tattoos

Two girls – no doubt modeled after the women that wear them – sit on swings. When the models are together, it looks like they share the same swing. When they are apart, a playful game of tattoo telephone keeps them connected.

17. You Complete Me Heart Puzzle

These stunning forearm tattoos share the same concept and layout but differ in the details. One is inked in blue and the other in pink. Both have something like a compass at the center, though one frames a floral design and the other a jewel.

18. Head to Toe Triangle Turtles Best Friend Tattoos

The act of holding hands is simple but undeniably sweet. Many children are taught to hold hands for safety from a young age. As they grow, it remains a symbol of loyalty and love, as demonstrated by this friendshiparm tattoo.

19. Simple Saturn Inner Wrist Best Friend Tattoos

The message of these coordinating friend tattoos is loud and clear. No matter what happens and no matter where it happens, these friends will always be there for each other. That is the simplest definition of what real friendship means.

20. A Stem of Pink Orchids Best Friend Tattoos

It takes a moment to identify this tattoo design as a tortoise. The sketch style makes it look almost abstract. When you see each of the tattoos side-by-side, it is clear that the tortoises are looking toward each other, even when the friends that wear them are apart.

21. Ocean Sunrise and Tidal Force Best Friend Tattoos

Avocadoes have become very trendy food. That said, they can also be polarizing. Clearly, a shared love for this savory fruit has become a fun feature of this friendship. These whimsical illustrations are a cute new twist on the two halves of a whole tattoo design concept.

22. Original Fantasy JewelryForearm Tattoos

Not all friendship tattoos are literal or obvious. This pair of friends have chosen tattoo designs that are beautiful on their own. One has a hand holding fruit. The other has a hand holding a flower. Together, they clearly possess some secret symbolism significant to their friendship.

23. Standing Tall and Strong Together Friend Tattoos

These delightful little girl illustrations clearly show that the two friends that wear them share their hearts freely. While one girl blows a kiss, the other cuddles her friend’s heart close. A string implies that the two are always connected.

24. Sharing a Swing and a Chat Friend Tattoos

When tattoos are especially personal, it’s not uncommon for their owners to keep their meaning somewhat obscure. One can surmise that the years these friends are wearing are tied to important events in their relationship, but only they know their full significance.

25. I’ll Never Let You Go

Koi fish are widely considered to be a symbol of luck. They can also represent wisdom and spirituality. These two friends wear koi facing in opposite directions. Side by side, the fish form a loose circle, indicating that the models only feel complete when they are together.

26. Sketch Style Tortoise Wrist Tattoo

If you only glance at these tattoos, you might just register them as pretty cursive words. But the deeper meaning of the words is powerful and personal. “You keep me safe” is scrawled across the models’ ribs. It’s a testament to the life-saving nature of their friendship.

27. No Matter What & No Matter Where Friend Tattoos

Two friends wear similar but distinct world tattoos. The illustration style varies, and each map is circled by a plain in a different location. Either these friends have logged a lot of miles together, or they want to stay connected, no matter where in the world each is.

28. A Flower and a Fruit Friendship Tattoos

To wear one’s heart on onehalf sleeve tattoois to be open about their emotions. These friends took that phrase very literally when they decided to get geometric heart designs tattooed on their wrists. The emotion they’re displaying here is unmistakably to love.

29. My Heart on a String Friendship Tattoos

These two kindred spirits were lucky to find each other. Now they want to keep the good luck going by wearing crossed fingers on their arms forever. By choosing the samefinger tattoo design, they also pay homage to the fortuitous nature of their friendship.

30. Two Halves of a Whole Avocado

“To infinity and beyond” is the iconic catchphrase of the cartoon astronaut Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movie franchise. Chances are the friends that wear these tattoos are as close as Buzz and Woody. This ink and the friendship that it represents will last forever.

31. I’d Cross the World for You Friendship Tattoos

The best friendships are the ones that represent a balance. These friend tattoos share the same two phrases: “Keep Me Wild” and “Keep Me Sane.” But each tattoo highlights a different phrase, suggesting that each friend brings something different to the table.

32. Simple Numbers with Surprising Significance Friendship Tattoos

The Powerpuff Girls make ideal models for friendship tattoos. While Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup are sisters, they are also best friends. The trio of cartoon heroes first appeared in the 1990s and remains an upbeat but empowered symbol of feminism. These could also work as charmingsister tattoos.

33. Fancy Fish Bring Luck to Friends Friendship Tattoos

If this globe-trotting design is to be believed, then this is a friendship that has stood the test of time and distance. A tattoo design is a fitting way to honor that achievement because it will also stand the test of time.

34. You Keep Me Safe Tattoos Friendship Tattoos

Everybody loves dinosaurs! That makes them an agreeable design for a trio of friends; especially friends that have been together since they were young enough to watch dinosaur cartoons. While each friend has chosen a different dino, together the three tattoos look totally cohesive.

35. To Infinity and Beyond Ink Friendship Tattoos

A pair of quirky cartoon girls each waves a puzzle piece. When the women that inspired the girls to get together, their puzzle pieces combine to make a heart. It’s a cute way to show that they carry a piece of each other with them always.

36. The Powerpuff Girls Forearm Tattoos for Best Friends

Somewhere along the way, the complementary rocket ship and Saturn tattoos came to symbolize friendship. Maybe it’s the childlike style of the illustration. Maybe it’s the suggestion of fun and exploration. Or maybe these friends just wanted some light-hearted ink.

37. Keep Me Wild and Keep Me Sane

Mirror image tattoos make great friendship designs because they express that the people that wear them are different but the same. These pink wildflowers make a beautifully realized standalone design, but when they come together they look like two parts of the same plant.

38. Geometric Hearts on Their Sleeves Friendship Tattoos

Some friends get seashell tattoos because there are two sides to every shell. This trio got seashells to pay homage to their shared love of the ocean. Seashells are also used as a symbol of prosperity and protection; desirable attributes in any friendship!

39. Traveling Around the World Together

There are no larger symbols of symbiosis than the sun and the moon. For all of human history, these two celestial bodies have been associated. That makes them perfect tattoo models for an enduring friendship. Alternating negative space keeps each design slightly different.

40. Another Little Piece of My Heart

“I’ll Be There for You” is famously the theme song of the hit TV show Friends. It’s no surprise, then, that a group of friends would feel drawn to the phrase. Even without the pop culture significance, the line is a timeless reflection on the nature of friendship.

41. Fingers Crossed for Good Luck

These cartoon cutie pies share a great, 1950s-inspired kitsch style. More importantly, they are playing a classic game of telephone. No doubt the friends that wear these tattoos once played that game too and continue to stay connected by talking on their real telephones.

42. Collecting Shells Friendship Trio Tattoos for Best Friends

Here’s a truly clever way to honor friends that are far apart. The best friends tattoo designs depict two different skylines, but the top and bottom alternate from one wearer to the next. The friends play up this mind-bending concept by alternating the placement, too.

43. Call Me on The Telephone

Pointillist rays of a barely-there sun disappear into a black crescent. The best friends tattoo could represent popular friendship symbols the sun and the moon. Or it could be embracing the mysticism of an eclipse. Either way, it immediately identifies the two models as friends.

44. One Little, Two Little, Three Little Dinosaurs

This heart-warming best friends tattoo design depicts two girls sharing a swing at sunset. Bright pops of orange make the otherwise monochromatic sketch come alive. For the friends that wear these tattoos, the scene is a meaningful reminder of their best days together.

45. Mirror Image Inner Arm Wildflowers Tattoo for Best Friends

This adorable tattoo design takes a simple concept like a dotted line heart and makes it special by adding a plane. The image suggests that these BFFs will travel any distance to be together again and that the effort is justified by their love.

46. A Friendship that Crosses Time and Space

These friends take the pinky swear so seriously, they have commemorated it in ink. To further clarify the meaning of the tattoo design, a joyful red heart bounces above the crossed fingers. It’s an ode to loyalty, enduring relationships, and platonic love.

47. We’ll Swing Off into the Sunset Tattoo for Best Friends

At first, these friends appear to have the same tattoo design. A closer look shows that each design sports a slightly different line of mehndi symbols. Like any good friendship, the concept allows the women to honor what makes them unique while also celebrating what they have in common.

48. I’ll Be There for You Tattoo for Best Friends

The game of cup phone is so ubiquitous in childhood that it has come to represent friendships that began during those innocent years. Each of these friends wears the same design. The artist has flipped it so that when they are together, the telephone game is connected.

49. Negative Space Sun and Moon Tattoos for Best Friends

Here’s a friendship tattoo design idea that is easy to personalize. While the models have used the Roman numerals for 9 and 2003, you can easily change the numbers to represent whatever day is most significant to you and your friend(s).

50. Alternating Skylines Men’s Friendship Tattoos

Thesimple tattoocombination of an X and an O is universally recognized as the symbol for hugs and kisses. Many a friend has signed a note, text, or tweet with those letters. These friends have used those iconic symbols to pay permanent homage to their love with matching tattoos.

51. A Friendship that Connects the Dots

Long eyelashes have been associated with glamour for hundreds of years. While it’s possible these friends both sport lashes on their arms because they love glamour, it seems more likely that they see the humor in the faces created by the lashes being placed above their elbows.

52. Sun, Crescent Moon, and Eclipse Ink Tattoo for Best Friends

The Beatles are one of the most popular bands of all time. It’s no surprise then that these friends both find meaning in the lyrics of one of their most famous songs. One wears the line, “Whisper Words of Wisdom.” The other has a complimentary tattoo design of the title, “Let It Be.”

53. Mehndi Arm Cute Tattoos for Best Friends

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54. Write It in Roman Numerals Tattoo for Best Friends

Only true friends take the leap and commemorate their love with tattoos. The kinds of friendships that inspire permanent ink are the kinds that last forever. Some friends choose to commemorate an important date with numbers or Roman Numerals. Others choose a design that reflects a shared interest. Still, others put their feelings into words. Some friends just get the same tattoo design because they both like it. But the most inspiring friendship tattoo designs speak to the nature of the friendship itself, whether that means a yin and yang balance or the mirror image of kindred spirits.

55. Cup Phone Best Friendship Tattoo for Best Friends

This striking cup phone best friendship tattoo for best friends design showcases clean artistic execution, thoughtful anatomical placement, and balanced contrast. A versatile concept tailored for collectors seeking expressive, timeless ink.

56. Matching Tattoos Idea: Hugs and Kisses for Affectionate Friends

This striking matching tattoos idea: hugs and kisses for affectionate friends design showcases clean artistic execution, thoughtful anatomical placement, and balanced contrast. A versatile concept tailored for collectors seeking expressive, timeless ink.

57. Whisper Words of Wisdom Lyrics Tattoo for Best Friends

This striking whisper words of wisdom lyrics tattoo for best friends design showcases clean artistic execution, thoughtful anatomical placement, and balanced contrast. A versatile concept tailored for collectors seeking expressive, timeless ink.

58. No Matter Where I’ll Be There Matching Tattoos

This striking no matter where i’ll be there matching tattoos design showcases clean artistic execution, thoughtful anatomical placement, and balanced contrast. A versatile concept tailored for collectors seeking expressive, timeless ink.

Styling Advice and Placement Considerations

When selecting a tattoo design, consider how the natural contours of your body interact with the composition. Fine line and minimalist designs thrive on flat planes such as the inner forearm, ribcage, or ankle, while bold illustrative pieces command attention across broader muscle groups like the shoulder, thigh, or upper back.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a tattoo take to heal?

Most tattoos heal on the surface within 2 to 3 weeks, while complete deeper skin regeneration takes approximately 4 to 6 weeks. Follow strict aftercare: keep the tattoo clean, moisturized, and protected from direct sunlight.

How do I choose between color and black-and-grey?

Black-and-grey tattoos age exceptionally well and require minimal touch-ups. Color tattoos provide vibrant contrast and personality, but require consistent sun protection to prevent premature fading.