tattoo
1 Americannoun
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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:
“Nobody is going to get a tattoo, but hair grows every day,” Fonseca said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
"I think it's because it's quite unusual from what lots of people expect a tattoo to look like… this is very delicate."
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
"I don't plan any tattoo, it's just if it pops in my head," he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
The tattoo even has a crown on it, strengthening her belief that she’s right where she’s supposed to be, debuting for the new Women’s Pro Baseball League’s Los Angeles Queens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026
At dusk the drums of calamity began; their grave, throbbing rhythm came clearly through the night, throughout the night, each beat, each tattoo, echoing the mighty impotence of our human endeavour.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
For Rideaux, the tattoos have layers of meaning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Thirteen years later, Bauers has a beard, tattoos and is in his seventh major league season as the first baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
For centuries, tattoos were firmly linked to criminal gangs and sailors and, more recently, counter-cultural movements such as punk and motorbike clubs.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Then we applied temporary cat tattoos onto our arms, channeling our inner teen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
What was it about the tattoos that so beguiled her?
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Every tattooed person he interviewed in the 2000s for his research cited David Beckham as their inspiration; the footballer made a statement when he got his first inking in 1999.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Or a new generation of candidates – tattooed veterans, mechanics, bartenders – whose biography is supposed to do the political work that policy has not.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
Wilson adores Odysseus so much that she has his bow tattooed on her right leg.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Plus, an AI startup offers job interviews to candidates who get tattooed, and Kevin Warsh’s honeymoon with the bond market is already over.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
They were eight-foot-tall giants with wild eyes, pointy teeth, and hairy arms tattooed with snakes and hula women and Valentine hearts.
From "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan
While he sported multiple tattoos, these days “people are tattooing their entire faces—and then having surgery to remove their lips and ears, so they look like aliens.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2025
It stated that "tattooing is fundamentally a medical procedure, and its growing popularity does not reduce the associated risks".
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025
Though the tattooing prohibition will no longer be a permanent feature of South Korean society, removing it completely may be a slow and painful process.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025
She did have her tattooing equipment, she said, but was planning to ink a fellow tattoo artist, not to work professionally.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2025
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
