2. Anime Style Color

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Source: @nemesis.tattoo via Instagram

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These color anime tattoos opt for brighter, less finely detailed depictions. There is much less nuance, as the colors work together to form shadow and create the variety within each design. I like how much of the more detailed parts of these tattoos lie in the complementary images or within framing shapes to work in opposition.

Alphonse is such a unique character, there’s no wonder he’s a favorite character drawn across a range of tattoo styles. However, Eric looks like a character straight out of anime tattoo central casting, also providing a good opportunity to ink into cool color designs.

3. Blood Rune and Ouroboros Tattoos

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A Blood Rune is a sacred symbol used to bind someone’s soul to an inanimate metal object, such as Alphonse. The iron in the blood will interact with the metal it is on, causing the object and the blood rune to form a symbiosis.

According to the Full Metal Alchemist wiki: “The Ouroboros is a mystical symbol representing a dragon devouring its own tail, representing the eternal cycle of life and death or wholeness and infinity… Encircled within is a hexagram, which is a symbol often associated with alchemy as well as human creation. One could perceive the Ouroboros as a sort of basis for the Transmutation Circle used in the series.”