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The best love-themed tattoos: Get inspired and show us yours!

Say 'I love you' with inkFalling in love, getting engaged or getting hitched to your sweetheart—they're such life-altering, happy experiences, that many couples commemorate them with love-inspired ink. Here, a roundup of the coolest, most creative love-themed tats.Hearts on hands"Just [like] my tattoo, my life isn't complete without him. We saw the idea for this tattoo online, and the nice man

Say 'I love you' with ink
Falling in love, getting engaged or getting hitched to your sweetheart—they're such life-altering, happy experiences, that many couples commemorate them with love-inspired ink. Here, a roundup of the coolest, most creative love-themed tats.

Hearts on hands
"Just [like] my tattoo, my life isn't complete without him. We saw the idea for this tattoo online, and the nice man at the tattoo shop drew it up for us. We got them on our 10th wedding anniversary. This photo was taken at Deerfield Beach, Fla., just after they healed." —Amy

50/50 tattoo
"On the show Breaking Bad, Walt and Jesse are always referencing a 50/50 division of labor for their 'partnership.' We are fans of the show, but we also feel that a 50/50 division of labor describes our relationship. It may not be equally balanced in typical form, but things do balance out and that's why our relationship has been so successful. This will be a second marriage for us both, and we both know what works and what doesn't work in a relationship. We work hard to maintain being in love—and the 50/50 represents what we both give to the relationship."—Tina

Lock and key tattoo
"We had been throwing around the idea of some kind of couple tattoos for quite a while. There were many different things we talked about, but we both agreed that we liked the lock and key idea for their traditional appeal. I love that they complement each other and each of us individually! Mine is girlie and Sheldon's is much more traditional, which matches a lot of his other work. We're both totally in love with them!"—Dana

Telephone tattoo
"The telephone. I love this man all over the earth and as far as the distance grows between us, my love never falters. I feel so blessed to live in a time in history where the world is the smallest it's ever been, because that means he's never really that far away. And to think about the mark on my arm, and the mark on his arm, feels like a great cord between us, bonding us together over landscapes. Now, we come in a matching set. And we plan to convince our children that we can actually use it as a working telephone to communicate with each other. It's gonna be awesome. 'Hold on, child, let me ask your father on my arm telephone!'"—Punam 

Typewriter talent tattoo
"The typewriter represents my talented husband and his love for writing. It's the start of a half sleeve dedicated to him and us."—Abi

King and queen tattoo
"When my husband and I hit the four-year mark while dating, we knew marriage was in our future, but we weren't ready to get engaged or plan a wedding (let alone pay for one). So we decided to get matching tattoos. We liked crown and heart imagery, and my husband also suggested a cherry and my hair color. Our friend, a tattoo artist, offered to do them for my birthday, so we jumped on it. He came up with the perfect layout for our idea: a cherry with wings and a crown. My husband has a king's crown and I have a queen's. We chose opposite arms so when we sit next to each other, our tattoos can be side by side. We love that even though they are considered matching tattoos, they’re different in design and placement. This photo is from our wedding in 2000."—Julia

Nickname tattoo
"'Sweet Darling' is something my husband has always called me, so it was only fitting to get it tattooed somewhere I could see it all of the time. My tattoo artist, Mando Rascon (Immaculate Tattoo, Mesa, Ariz.), did such a good job with the lettering and I fall a little more in love with it everyday."—Danielle

Geek love tattoo
"We chose the design because we both identify as 'geeks' and love video games. The hearts are based on the Zelda life hearts in the original 8-bit game. Additionally, it was a choice that the tattoo could be autonomous to ourselves, as well as a symbol of our relationship. We plan to get additional, mini-versions of the hearts to represent increments of years married—so, one mini-heart would equal five years of marriage."—Desiree

Sailor girl tattoo
"I have a traditional-looking sailor girl on my left leg that I did myself. My fiancé deployed for six months with the navy right after he proposed to me, so on a slow work day I had a sudden urge to put this beautiful tattoo on me for him/us. I love it so much!"—Becky

Ring finger tattoos
"My husband, Josh and I have our names tattooed on our ring fingers. We got them because we were married young and our rings didn't fit any more as we got older! We are not huge on bling and we knew were in it for the long run. It worked out that we both have four letters in our first names and we replaced the vowels with diamonds."—Tran

Sweet saying tattoos
"My husband, Jose and I decided to get matching finger tattoos that say 'Siempre Contigo' which means 'Always With You', on our honeymoon in Aruba. It's my first and only tattoo."—Sima

Twist around tattoo
"We chose this tattoo because we wanted to get something that matched and we wanted it to be different than the ordinary couple tattoo. We're very much in love and happy, so we thought this tattoo would be perfect for us!"—Tristin 

Forever us tattoo
"I started sketching our two initials, P & J, trying to combine our two names when I realized I could make the infinity symbol - which was perfect since I hope we’ll be together forever. It was my gift to Peter for our 22nd anniversary"—Jeffo

Asiatic lilies tattoo
"I have a tattoo for all my major life events, so I knew I wanted to get one for our marriage, however, I didn't want to settle for just my wife’s name. So I chose Asiatic lilies, which were the flowers we carried at our wedding. Since they looked a little plain, I added text. But instead of it being her name or our initials, I stripped it down to the most basic thing between us: love. Mahal kita means "I love you" in Tagalog, my wife’s native language."—Lauren

Perfect bliss tattoo
"When we were dating my ex-husband asked me, 'What’s one word that describes our relationship for you?' My reply: 'Perfect.' His word was 'Bliss.' Though our marriage didn’t last, five years after our divorce, we talk/text/IM nearly every day. He's still one of my best friends. I do not regret getting the tattoo. Our romance was a very big part of my life." —Kelso

Silhouette tattoos
“My husband and I decided to get tattoos together that symbolized our love for each other. We did it on our five-year anniversary. My husband, an artist, came up with the concept. We did each other's silhouettes in Photoshop, and then created frames for them.”—Brad and Ashley Reynolds from Spokane, WA.

Reflection of each other tattoos
“Before [my friend’s] marriage, they got the same tattoos. Since then, my friend got pregnant and her tattoo doubled in size, but then returned to its original shape.”—Jerome Grevaz from Grenoble, France

Album-inspired tattoos
“This tattoo is actually artwork from an album by The Arcade Fire. I mentioned that I would love to get it as a tattoo, but my boyfriend insisted that I stole his idea! After some thought, he suggested that we both get it done. The tattoo artist used the same exact stencil on Brendan that he used for me, so it is the exact same tattoo. It makes me feel more connected with him.”—Randi Iaco from Middletown, CT

Bold star tattoos
“My boyfriend and I got these on New Years 2010. We are both artistic and share similar aesthetic tastes; he is an architectural designer, and I am a portrait photographer and mixed-media artist. The five points on our stars symbolize our five children and the unfilled and open nature of the bold star represents an on going commitment to open communication.”—Kimberly Mahr-Kwan

Wedding band tattoos
“Diya and Ani, good friends of mine, recently got married. They each got a tattoo of a wedding band on their fingers instead of wedding rings.”—lakshmananan/flickr.com


A version of this story originally appeared on iVillage.