tattoo
1 Americannoun
-
tattoos
plural
-
a signal on a drum, bugle, or trumpet at night, for soldiers or sailors to go to their quarters.
-
a knocking or strong pulsation.
My heart beat a tattoo on my ribs.
-
British. an outdoor military pageant or display.
noun
-
tattoos
plural
-
the act or practice of marking the skin with indelible patterns, pictures, legends, etc., by making punctures in it and inserting pigments.
-
a pattern, picture, legend, etc., so made.
verb (used with object)
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tattoos,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tattooed,
past participle, past
-
tattooing
present participle
-
to mark (the skin) with tattoos.
-
to put (tattoos) on the skin.
noun
-
(formerly) a signal by drum or bugle ordering the military to return to their quarters
-
a military display or pageant, usually at night
-
any similar beating on a drum, etc
verb
noun
-
a design made by this process
-
the practice of tattooing
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
tattoosimple
-
tattoossimple
-
have tattooedperfect
-
has tattooedperfect
-
am tattooingprogressive
-
are tattooingprogressive
-
is tattooingprogressive
-
have been tattooingperfect progressive
-
has been tattooingperfect progressive
Past
-
tattooedsimple
-
had tattooedperfect
-
was tattooingprogressive
-
were tattooingprogressive
-
had been tattooingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tattoo1
First recorded in 1570–80; earlier taptoo, from Dutch taptoe, literally, “shut tap,” from tap “spigot, tap” + toe “closed, shut”; cognate with tap 2 ( def. ), to ( def. )
Origin of tattoo2
First recorded in 1760–70; from Marquesan tatu; replacing tattow, from Tahitian tatau
Explanation
A tattoo is a permanent design made on skin with a needle and ink. If you want a butterfly tattoo but you're scared of needles, you might settle for a temporary version. The word tattoo is also a verb meaning stain the skin using needles and ink. It's probably a good idea to wait until you've been dating someone for more than a week before you tattoo their name on your arm. In music, a tattoo is continuous drumming, and a military tattoo is a drum or bugle that signals soldiers to return to their quarters at the end of the day.
Vocabulary lists containing tattoo
"The Tell-Tale Heart," Vocabulary from the short story
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Commonly Misspelled Words, List 1
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He’s shadowed a dog groomer, a radio show host and a ramen shop owner, and is reviewing requests from an airline captain and a tattoo artist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
While some teenagers may mark their 18th birthdays by buying a lottery ticket or getting a first tattoo, Deon Radcliff Jr. had different priorities.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
"I do have a Bake Off tattoo on my ribs - I've got a piping bag, a whisk and a rolling pin," she said.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
"But when we showed them the body, one of the women realised it wasn't her husband because there was a tattoo on the arm."
From Barron's ● Aug. 30, 2026
Wimpy helped everyone climb on board, a grim look on his face, his eagle tattoo pumping away.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
Crocs is expanding beyond Jibbitz to embrace “elevated” customization like temporary shoe tattoos and attachable ballet ribbons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Even today, some older men bear facial tattoos associated with the Konyaks' historical practice of headhunting.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
In the popular imagination, a Viking is tall, broad-shouldered man who wields a sword, and might have a modern haircut like a skin fade or lots of tattoos.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
Each of the tattoos varies in style, not unlike the distinct personalities in the book’s fictional MFA cohort.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
The other man is dark brown and thin, wears a do-rag, and has tattoos and an orange Glow.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
"I'd have Gladiators champion tattooed on my forehead if I could so I bit their hand off to do it," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
In several of her novels, Ms. Mandel has had characters with beloved quotations tattooed on their bodies, a practice that inspired a real-life trend of the author’s fans being inked with lines from her books.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
At least three people, including Robinson’s mom and Banks’ wife, have bodyguards in tow, some of them hulking and one with a tattooed head that bears the letters SOG, to signify “Son of God.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Recently she had an image of a clock, frozen at 09:13 on 21 October 1966, tattooed on her arm.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Then came his favorite saying; it wouldn’t have surprised me if he had it tattooed across his chest.
From "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds
Even if the choice of this outfit is that Wang is soft-launching his stick-and-poke tattooing side hustle, it’s still a conscious choice.
From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2026
But he is standing tall at the plate, tattooing balls at the letters, double-fisting his follow-throughs and, importantly, generally showing discernment about the strike zone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Buxton said the trend, which is often advertised on Instagram and TikTok for as little as £150 for a three-hour session, had been fuelled in-part by permanent make-up practitioners branching into fine-line tattooing.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
“People started tattooing ‘Dios Por Delante’ on their forearms and neck and that’s when we realized that this was more than music, it’s a movement,” Joel said of the impact of the latter song.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026
But doing so would be like tattooing “I am up to no good” on my forehead.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
