Everyone loves animal tattoos, right? In terms of tattoo iconography’s ancient (as in caveman) roots, the first tattoos were medical and spiritual in nature, followed not long afterwards by drawings of animal (I don’t think we know if they were totemic or decorative).

Let’s start with a little animal — these are IAM:thouarttheman40‘s rat footprints by Mike Zimmer at Lake Monster Tattoo in South Lake Tahoe, CA.

Conceptually, I also like this flock of birds by Mato at Dunajska in Bratislava, Slovakia, although I have the feeling this might be one of those tattoo that looks a little better in photos than it does in person for graphic design reasons.

This pitbull portrait is sweet as well, done by Dennis at Big Joe and Son’s Tattooing in Yonkers, NY.

Finally, I’ve been wondering if the movie hit March of the Penguins would leave us with a whole lot more penguin tattoos. It’s not as if they’re unpopular as is. Anyway, I hope so.

This one is by Dave Cutlip at Explosive Tattoo in Salibury, MD. Their IAM name (the person with the tattoo, not Dave) won’t surprise you: penguinkelp.