Mom Tattoo Ideas for Sons and Daughters

Honoring someone is the top reason Americans give for a tattoo, and for a lot of parents the someone is a child. In a 2023 Pew Research Center survey of 8,480 US adults, 38% of women had at least one tattoo, rising to 53% of women aged 30 to 49, the ages when many are raising young children. To "remember or honor someone or something" was the most common reason given, cited by 69% of tattooed adults and 73% of tattooed women. The same survey found 24% regret at least one of theirs.

So the ideas below lean toward the ones that hold their meaning: a name, a date, a flower, and best of all a mark the child made themselves. Every idea works for a son or a daughter. The sections for each are there because that's how people search, not because a bear is only for boys.

Name tattoos for your kids

A name is the most direct mom tattoo, and the lettering matters more than the name itself. The person who wrote it is the detail most people remember.

• Their name in your handwriting. Write it a dozen times on plain paper and give the artist your best one.
• Their name in their own handwriting, copied from the first time they wrote it, backwards letter and all.
• Initials only, small enough for the inside of a wrist.
• Every child's initials stacked, oldest on top.
• The name as a flower stem, with the letters forming the stem and a small bloom on top.
• The name running into a heartbeat line, the letters picking up where the EKG trace ends.
• The name in Morse code. It reads as a neat row of dots and dashes; "MOM" is -- --- --.
• The nickname only you use. Nobody else will know what it means, which is the point.
• The name on a curved banner. The scroll carrying a name or date was already a standard part of sailors' tattoos by 1898, the Naval History and Heritage Command notes.
• The name in another alphabet from your family's heritage. Have a native reader check the stencil before anything goes on skin.
• The name's meaning instead of the name. A name meaning "light" becomes a small sun; one meaning "bear" becomes a paw.
• Their middle name, if it was chosen for someone in the family.

Birth date tattoos and Roman numerals

Dates are small, they can go almost anywhere, and they don't need explaining to anyone who knows the birthday.

• The birth date in Roman numerals (table below).
• The date in plain typewriter numerals. Easier to read at a glance than Roman numerals.
• The time of birth as a small clock face, hands set to the minute.
• Birth weight and length in small type under a name.
• The coordinates of where they were born. In Google Maps on a computer, right-click the hospital and the latitude and longitude appear at the top of the pop-up.
• The coordinates of the first home they came back to.
• The birth year alone, one per child in a row.
• The moon phase on the night they were born. The US Naval Observatory's moon phase tables go back to 1700, so you can find it for any birthday.
• The star map over their birthplace that night, reduced to a few bright points and lines.
• A gotcha-day or adoption date, for the day they became yours.

How do you write a birth date in Roman numerals?

Write the month, day and year as three separate Roman numerals with a dot or space between them, so June 14, 2019 becomes VI · XIV · MMXIX. Decide on month-first (US) or day-first before you go, and tell the artist which, because 4 · VI could be April 6 or June 4. Use the standard subtractive forms: 4 is IV, 9 is IX, 19 is XIX, and 2019 is MMXIX, not MMXVIIII.

Check your full date against a second converter before booking.

Tattoos from your child's own drawing or handwriting

The tattoo nobody else can have is a copy of something your child made. Artists can trace a drawing line for line, wobbles included, and the wobbles are the reason to do it.

• Their drawing, exactly as drawn. Photograph it flat in daylight so the artist gets every line.
• The drawing they made of you. If you have one, it probably gives you very long arms.
• Their first self-portrait, the round head with legs coming straight out of it.
• "I love you" in their handwriting, cut from a birthday card.
• Their signature, from a school worksheet or the back of a painting.
• A newborn footprint, traced from the hospital footprint card if you were given one.
• A handprint outline from a preschool craft.
• Their thumbprint shaped into a small heart. Press it in ink on white paper; the artist can trace the ridges.
• A stick-figure family portrait, everyone in it, pets included.
• The first word they wrote.
• One drawing from each child, side by side at the same height.
• A scribble from their first year, traced exactly. It looks abstract to everyone but you.

Birth flower tattoos by month

A birth flower marks a child's month without spelling it out, and it works as a single stem or as one stem per child in a small bouquet. These are the first flowers on the Old Farmer's Almanac list, the one most US sites copy. Our birth month flowers guide has the second flower for each month and what each meant in the Victorian flower books.

• January: carnation
• February: violet
• March: daffodil
• April: daisy
• May: lily of the valley
• June: rose
• July: larkspur
• August: gladiolus
• September: aster
• October: marigold
• November: chrysanthemum
• December: narcissus

Some of these are much easier to draw small than others. A daisy or a single rose holds up at an inch wide. Larkspur and gladiolus are tall spikes of many small blooms, so they suit the inner forearm or the ribs better than the wrist.

Birthstone tattoos by month

A birthstone tattoo is usually a small faceted gem, drawn in color or in black outline only. The US list was set in 1912 by the jewelers' association now called Jewelers of America, and it has been changed three times: in 1952, in 2002 when tanzanite joined December, and in 2016 when spinel joined August.

• January: garnet, deep red
• February: amethyst, purple
• March: aquamarine, pale blue
• April: diamond, outline only
• May: emerald, green
• June: pearl, moonstone or alexandrite
• July: ruby, red
• August: peridot (yellow-green) or spinel
• September: sapphire, blue
• October: opal or tourmaline
• November: citrine or topaz, gold
• December: turquoise, tanzanite or blue zircon

For July and January, think about the color. Red is the ink most often behind allergic reactions to tattoos: in one study of skin samples from 104 people with tattoo reactions, 78% involved red pigment, Popular Science reported. A ruby or garnet drawn in black outline avoids that.

Mom tattoo ideas for a son

Common choices for a son, and any of them works just as well for a daughter.

• A mother bear and cub. It's accurate, too: black bear cubs stay with their mother for about 18 months, the National Park Service says, and the father takes no part in raising them.
• A paper airplane, mid-flight, with a dotted trail.
• An arrow, plain or with his initial in the fletching.
• A compass or nautical star. Navy lore says sailors wore one to find their way back to port.
• An anchor. Early Christians carved it on Roman catacomb epitaphs as a sign of hope; our family symbols guide traces how it got its family meaning.
• A lion and cub, in simple line work.
• A small mountain range, from the place he was born or the place you go every summer.
• The dinosaur, truck or animal he was obsessed with at four, drawn the way he drew it.
• A sun, for a son born in summer or just a son.
• A single wave, for a beach baby.

Mom tattoo ideas for a daughter

The same rule applies here: every idea in this list works for a son.

• A mother elephant and calf. Elephant families are led by an older female, the matriarch, and daughters stay with the family for life; our family symbols guide has the sources. A mother, grandmother and calf design is the accurate one.
• A butterfly, small, outline only.
• A crescent moon, often paired with a sun for a sibling.
• A daisy, even if April isn't her month.
• Two hands linked by the little fingers, the pinky promise.
• A fawn, in fine line.
• A sunflower, a single bloom with a short stem.
• A small bow, drawn as a single loop.
• A swan, in profile.
• The flower she always picks for you from the yard, whatever it is.

How do you fit more than one child into a tattoo?

The trick with more children is a mark that repeats, so the tattoo can grow if the family does. Leave room at the end of the row.

• One bird per child on a branch or in flight.
• Ducklings in a row behind a mother duck.
• One star per child, each with a tiny initial.
• A bouquet with one birth-flower stem per child.
• Birth years stacked, each on its own line.
• Initials linked in a chain.
• Nesting dolls, one per child, smallest last.
• A mother elephant with calves trunk to tail.

Short words and phrases

Short is better on skin, and a phrase in your child's own handwriting beats any font.

• "Mama", in their writing.
• "Love you more", the answer you give every night.
• "Home", under the coordinates.
• The name they call you, whether it's Mom, Mama, Mum or Mommy.
• "Always", in small type.
• "Mine", under a heart.
• "Hold on", for a child who had a hard start.
• Their word for something, the toddler mispronunciation the whole family still uses.

Portrait and line art tattoos

A portrait tattoo of a child usually means a fine-line drawing traced from a photo, not a shaded realistic face. Fine line has become its own style over the past decade, the New York artist JK Kim told Allure, and it suits a child's face because it uses a few clean lines.

• A fine-line portrait from a favorite photo, head and shoulders.
• A profile silhouette, filled in black.
• The ultrasound outline, traced from the scan.
• A mother holding a baby, as a single loose line drawing.
• Their face in bold linocut-style lines, which age better than very fine ones.
• A blind-contour sketch, drawn without looking down, loose and slightly wrong on purpose.

Tattoos for your own mom

"Mom tattoos" also means tattoos that honor your mother. Ideas for those:

• "Mom" in a heart with a banner, the old-school flash classic.
• Her handwriting, from a recipe card or a birthday card.
• Her birth flower.
• Her initials.
• Her signature, from an old check or letter.
• The flower she grew, or the one she always bought.
• The coordinates of the house you grew up in.
• A drawing you made her as a kid. Ask her; she probably kept it.

Do fine-line tattoos fade?

Yes, faster than bold ones, though they don't disappear. Tattoo ink sits in the dermis, where immune cells called macrophages take up the pigment; some of it is flushed away and the rest stays, dermatologist Rachel Maiman explained to Allure. Fine-line work fades sooner because the ink isn't packed as densely, artist JK Kim told the same piece. The skin keeps remodeling for three to six months after the appointment, so the healed tattoo, not the fresh photo, is the one to judge. The LA and Austin artist Jason Schroeder said he has seen fine-line work over 30 years old that is "soft and gray but still has great definition and readability". Three things help a kid's drawing or name stay readable:

• Go bigger than you think. A healed tattoo can come out "slightly thicker", Kim said, so small handwriting needs room between letters.
• Keep the sun off it. UV light breaks down tattoo pigment, Maiman said, and sunscreen slows that.
• Let the artist size it. Kim's advice was to follow your artist on "placement, size, and detail".

Can you get a tattoo while breastfeeding or pregnant?

Most artists won't do it, and the official sources lean toward waiting. The NIH's LactMed database says no data are available on the safety of tattooing during breastfeeding and that "opinion appears to favor not obtaining a new tattoo". La Leche League notes that most tattooists will not knowingly tattoo a pregnant or breastfeeding mother, and suggests waiting until at least 9 to 12 months after birth, when the baby no longer relies on breast milk alone. It also advises waiting until after weaning for laser removal, which breaks ink into smaller particles.

If you want to mark the birth now and book the tattoo later, start with the design: save the hospital footprint card, write down the time of birth and the coordinates, and keep the first drawings. By the time you're ready, you'll have a better design than you would have picked in the first month.

The necklace comes in stainless steel ($59), gold plated ($69) or sterling silver ($89), on an 18-inch chain in a gift box. If the drawings are piling up faster than you can tattoo them, our guide to children's artwork gifts covers what else to do with them.

Frequently asked questions