Plan your tattoo by body area
Compare tattoo pain, fading and practical placement guidance by body area. Select a spot to see the details, then switch between Pain and Fade.
Interactive body map
Switch between Front and Back, and between the Pain and Fade heatmaps. Select an area to read its full guidance. These are estimated guides — pain and fading vary a lot by person.
- 1–2 Low
- 3–4 Mild–Moderate
- 5–6 Moderate
- 7–8 High
- 9–10 Severe
- Low
- Medium
- High
Choose an area
Reliable list of selectable body areas. The current view filters which areas appear.
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Head & neck
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Torso & shoulders
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Arms & hands
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Hips & thighs
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Knees, lower legs & feet
Keyboard users: Tab enters the body map once. Use the arrow keys to move between body areas, Home or End to jump to the first or last area, and Enter or Space to select. The body-area buttons below the map remain an alternative.
Community pain
Help improve the pain map
Had a tattoo before? Rate the areas you’ve experienced. More ratings help the map better reflect real tattoo experiences.
TattooGuide companion
Planning more than placement?
TattooGuide covers preparation, prices, aftercare and choosing an artist when you need more than the body map.
How to use it
The body map has two heatmaps, both built on the same body-area data:
- Pain — areas coloured by how much they tend to hurt (shown by default).
- Fade — areas coloured by how quickly tattoos tend to age and fade there.
Switch between front and back, pick Pain or Fade, then select an area. The panel shows the full picture for that spot — pain, fading, healing, visibility, first-tattoo friendliness and practical placement, size and style advice. Pain and fade ratings are estimates based on common tattoo-artist experience and vary a lot from person to person — they're shown as a number and a label, never colour alone. Read how we estimate them on How it works, browse published placement guides, or read more about the project on About.
3D view
Explore the same body map in 3D
Rotate the body and select the same areas using the same Pain and Fade data. The 2D map remains the permanent accessible fallback.