Coordinates tattoo: best ideas and meaning

Coordinates tattoos: meaning and symbolism

Coordinates work much like a date, except they record space rather than time. The usual choices are where a child was born, a home town, the point of a first meeting, a wedding venue, or the city someone chose as home. To everyone else it is an unreadable string of numbers; to the wearer it is the exact address of a memory.

Matching versions are popular too: two people each wearing the coordinates of the other's place, or parents wearing the hospital coordinates alongside a child's name. If the place in question is Prague, have a look at Prague lettering as well.

Formats and how to verify them

There are two formats. The degrees version looks like 50°05'14.3"N 14°25'16.9"E and reads more like navigation equipment; the decimal version, 50.0873, 14.4214, is shorter and cleaner. What matters most is the order: latitude (N or S) always comes first, longitude (E or W) second. Swapping them is the most common mistake in this category and can move the point to another country entirely.

Mind the precision as well. Four decimal places correspond to roughly eleven metres, which is more than enough for a building; a longer string only adds digits without adding meaning. And the small marks – degree, minute, second – are the most fragile part of the whole piece in a thin line, so they need room.

The most important advice comes last: before your session, copy the coordinates exactly as they will be tattooed into a maps app and see where the pin lands. It takes half a minute and it is the only way to be certain you will be wearing the place you actually mean.

Styles, designs and placement

Fine line black work leads our gallery – either a plain font that suggests a navigation display, or elegant script. The string usually sits on one line, or on two for longer coordinates, sometimes divided by a thin rule. A small symbol is occasionally added: a compass arrow, a star, a mountain outline, a wave.

We most often tattoo coordinates on the forearm, ribs, collarbone, back and inner arm – wherever there is a flat surface for a longer line. The piece is delicate, heals quickly and takes a smaller size well, as long as the digit count is not overdone.

Our artists will prepare the notation in several versions, and we will check together that the point sits exactly where it should before we start. We work in English, Czech and Russian.