Whether you live in the south, like to scuba dive, or are just a fan of the style, nautical themes are certainly a great tattoo choice. In addition to the nice coloring and shading that often comes with nautical tattoos, there is a lot of additional imagery that can be added as well, giving people an endless sea of options to choose from. This not only allows for nautical tattoos to be made into unique masterpieces, but it also allows people to be more creative with them.
Considering how big and beautiful they often are, nautical tattoos are usually found on the upper or lower arm, and tend to take up a lot of space.
In an attempt to show just how great these tattoos can be, and just how beautiful they can look,
we have put together a list of 20 nautical half sleeve tattoos that are sure to catch your eye.
1. This Nice Nautical Half Sleeve Outline
Even just the outline looks great. Just wait until it is all filled in!
2. A Neat Nautical Boat Wheel and Compass Tattoo
Boat wheels are compasses (for obvious reasons) are some of the most common images associated with nautical tattoos.
3. Nautical Themed Colored Octopus With Shark
A perfect example of just how colorful, creative, and vibrant nautical tattoos can be!
4. Black and White With A Boat, Rough Waves, and A Sea Monster!Â
This one is actually almost large enough to be a full sleeve.
5. This Nautical Themed Boat With Tidal Waves and An Octopus
The coloring and shading are a little weird on this one, however, it still looks great.
6. A Grey Nautical Half Sleeve (With A Small Pink Flower) For Women
If you take away the small pink flower, this is a great tattoo for men too!
7. Nautical Themed Kraken Eating Boat
Another great outline, proving that nautical tattoos need not to have color in order to look amazing.
8. Realistic Nautical Lighthouse With Clouds and A Ship
With this one, there are even some beautiful rays of light shining down on the ship through the clouds.
9. This Nautical Ship With Some Neat Green and Blue Waves
Lime green waves are rather uncommon, yet they look great and definitely helped add some originality.
10. A Nautical Ship On Waves
Although it may be basic, this tattoo still looks great and is also very original.
11. This Realistic Nautical Sailboat
Very realistic with excellent shading!
12. A Neat Traditional Nautical Boat With Rough Waves
As seen below, nautical tattoos look great done in a traditional style.
13. A Nice Upper Arm Nautical Compass
A lot of subtle detail, and though it looks great as is, there is a lot of room for color too.
14. Black Rose Flowers and Nautical Anchor
An excellent black ink nautical tattoo, with very bold imagery.
15. A Realistic Nautical Lighthouse With A Portrait Above It
Another great example of how great and realistic looking nautical tattoos can be.
16. This Very Colorful Nautical Boat
There seems to be a bird and compass included as well!
17. A Nice Nautical Cover Up
Have a tattoo you don’t like? No problem, just get it covered up with a nautical tattoo.
18. Nautical Ship With Blue and Purple Water For Women
Certainly a great choice for women!
19. This Realistic Nautical Chart Compass
Perhaps the most amazing on the entire list, and certainly one of the most original.
20. A Very Nice Grey Nautical Half Sleeve
Very original – there seems to even be a sea creature flying out of the water!
Conclusion
Hopefully the list above not only gave you some great images to look at, but also some basic ideas to work with (if getting a nautical tattoo of your own). Since the nautical theme is used so frequently by so many people, it is always good to jazz your tattoo up in some way, and add some uniqueness to it. Fortunately, with the amount of nautical imagery that can be added in, and the many ocean-based ideas there are to choose from, this should be rather easy to do!
