Avatar: The Last Airbender has so many iconic characters and design elements that it makes perfect sense for the series to be a big franchise for people to get tattoos of. Plus, it’s one of the most beloved animated series of the 2000s, and people are dying to show their love and fandom for it by inking their favorite scenes and symbols onto their skin forever.
There are hundreds of beautiful Avatar: The Last Airbender tattoos, and many of them are stunning, clever, and cute. Despite having so many to choose from, we managed to pick 10 of our favorites.
10 Koi Fish
One of the most beautiful and touching scenes from the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender happens in the Kingdom of the Northern Water Tribe, where Sokka meets and falls in love with Princess Yue. We soon learn that the Moon Spirit exists in two intertwining koi fish that resemble yin and yang, and,when one of them is killed during the Fire Nation siege, it renders all of the Waterbenders powerless. Yue, whose life was given to her by the Moon Spirit, sacrifices herself for the sake of her people and all Waterbenders to swim for eternity as one with the Moon Spirit. This tattoo by Caleb Lynch represents the beauty of that sacrifice and this lovely scene.
9 Aang’s Fan
As an Airbender, Aang is able to manipulate the air around him. He can even use it to make himself fly by creating gusts of wind under the fan that he rides around on, and he also uses this fan as a weapon to magnify the power of the air as he bends it.
This is a simple tattoo by Julia C. Burns that only true fans of Avatar would recognize. Its simplicity and the fact that Aang doesn’t appear with the fan makes it a subtle call out to our favorite Airbender and all of the things he can do.
8 Four Nations
We all pretty much know the opening of Avatar by heart, and it helps that there have been memes galore about it. But the important part is that it lays out our four nations in the series: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. The connection of these four elements in the series and how they work together and against each other is at the heart of what Avatar is all about and what Aang represents to the people as the one person who can bend all four elements. These lovely watercolor renditions by Tina Dimino of the four nations’ symbols are gorgeous reminders of that harmony.
7 Uncle Iroh
Low-key everyone’s favorite character in Avatar is Uncle Iroh, and for good reason. He seems to have no political alignments or agenda outside of protecting the nephew he loves so much. He appears on the scene to offer wisdom to whoever needs it and generally remains unflappable all the time.
This lovely, intricately detailed portrait, done by Angela Emr, of Uncle Iroh and the tea he’s so often seen with is a great tribute to this uncle we’ve all adopted as our own. Added to that are the koi fish from the Northern Water Tribe where Iroh gave our heroes the information they needed to save the day, even though it meant betraying his own nation.
6 Toph
Toph is our favorite tough Earth Tribe babe. She doesn’t let the fact that she’s blind stop her from being the fiercest Earthbender in the world, achieving things that nobody else has ever managed before. Plus, she takes on the difficult task of teaching Aang how to Earthbend so that he can go on to save the world. This lovely full forearm tattoo of Toph by Russell Van Shaick is a great tribute to the powerful girl we love. The colors and sketchy linework make this look like a great piece of art straight out of a manga.
5 Avatar State
Aang is at his coolest when he enters the avatar state, when he’s so powerful that he almost doesn’t have control of himself, and when he can easily use all of his powers. He’s also at his most vulnerable in this state, since being killed while in the avatar state means he won’t reincarnate.
So, we couldn’t not include a tattoo of him in this state on this list. This one by Elaina Conroy is particularly cool. The dotwork instead of a more mainstream tattoo look gives it an otherworldly feel and the lack of details on Aang’s face and body draws attention to all of the drama happening around him.
4 The Blue Spirit
Like Aang’s fan, we love this one for its subtlety. While any Avatar fan would recognize the mask of the Blue Spirit, this also just makes a really awesome tattoo for someone who isn’t in the know. This mask, done by Rat Barse, is an awesome rendition, leaning into the heavily Asian-influenced style of the mask from the series, while also giving something of a sense of tiki masks. The awesome colors, particularly with the orange and red fire against the blue of the rest of the mask, really pop and make this tattoo something particularly special.
3 Aang’s Arrow
This tattoo, done at Tattoo Wonderland, is seriously cool because it combines some of the most recognizable iconography from Avatar into one pretty stellar tattoo. It’s also huge, which is really impressive to us because it shows a real desire to show how big a fan this person is.
The tattoo, rendered completely in black ink, features Aang’s signature arrows, which he has tattooed on his arms, legs, and head. The arrow is broken up by the four symbols of the nations, earth, water, fire, and wind, making sure we know exactly what this tattoo represents.
2 Appa
We can’t make a list of our favorite tattoos without including our favorite flying bison, Appa. This tattoo, done by Tiggy, is an absolutely gorgeous portrait of Appa. The detailing is careful enough that we can recognize him while also not being so true to the character that it can’t feel uniquely tattooed for this person. The watercolor color blocking is gorgeous, giving this tattoo its very own feel while also being true to the Airbenders color palette of orange and blue to remind us of Aang, even though he’s not in the tattoo himself.
1 Four Nations Knuckles
This tattoo, also by Russell Van Schaick, who did the gorgeous Toph tattoo above, is a very simple but perfect representation of an Avatar fan. Still shiny in this picture with medicine, this brand new tattoo showcases simple versions of each of the symbols of the four nations. The black linework is so delicate here, with no wavering away from the lines, which is very important for such a small and dainty tattoo. The fact that these are on the knuckles feels really cool, like this person’s ready to fight about how much they love Avatar, and we really feel that.