“People regularly walk down the memory lane of their early youth. The paper boats of their childhood are recurrently floating on the waves of their mind and bring back the mood and the spirit of the early days.” – Erik Pevernagie

At one time for small boys the building and execution of a boat crafted from the Saturday newspaper and sent down a flowing neighbourhood stream was the key activity for a weekend.

You’d get your crew together, pinch your household newspaper, work on different designs and then run them down the watercourse and compete to see whose boat travelled the fastest, looked the coolest, or braved the storm the strongest.

Now you can reminisce about papers boats and look back on am innocent, worry free time of life. This makes them popular in the world of tattoo during a time of digital & social media, video games, and greater interconnection.

Read on for 50 examples of how men have travelled back to boyhood with a variety of paper boat tattoos.

Paper Boat Tattoo Ideas For Men

This minimalist paper boat tattoo is excellently crafted. The artist’s ability to carefully create the notebook paper – complete with red line – is a commitment to getting the small details right. The black outline makes for a good border, and the boat looks like it could float with no trouble.

The small waves supporting this well depicted paper boat tattoo create an excellent pattern effect that tempers the heavy grade shadow. It’s an excellent little piece with cool contours and canny use of negative space.

Now this is a cracking little paper boat tattoo. The tattooist’s emphasis on the newspaper type effect looks cool and innovative, and mixes well with the circular dotwork border. The light shade and deft wave caps are a nice added touch of technical skill.

A killer line work message in a bottle tattoo. Love the different uses of fine line black applied in interesting ways to create a variety of shapes. The small paper boats cruising through waves beneath the beating sun looks wicked, while the nuanced shade in clouds and half moon waves is really fun.