For the majority of society on earth, gravity is just another part of everyday life. But for climbers, it’s a challenge. Hiking is not enough for rock climbers; they answer to a higher calling.

An inexplicable urge rests within each to push their boundaries further, attempt harsher, harder, and more dangerous climbs, pay respect to the spines of Mother Earth, and get super high on adrenaline.

First you have the top liners. These are the climbers who want nothing but to make it to the top, holding their bodies aloft on tiny bumps, cracks, and fissures, believing above all else in the power of the human mind and body.

Next, there are the boulderers, the technical strongmen of climbing who force their into impossible positions, suspending themselves above the earth without ropes, holding on to the smallest break in a smooth face of rock.

Then, there are the trad climbers, the mavericks of the sport who put their trust into gromets and nuts, forsaking the preordained routes of top-ropers and securing themselves to the rock face with any crack they can find.

Finally, there are the free climbers, the adrenaline junkies who stand at the edge of society and laugh in the face of danger. These magicians of physics climb multiple pitches without any ropes or safety at all.

Most climbers do not view their favorite activity as a sport, but instead, a way of life that incorporates health, intense physical activity, and spiritual communion with the mountains that give our earth its shape. To display their climber identities, they wear climbing tattoos: the complex knots they tie that ensure their safety, the thin, yet strong carabineers that catch them when they fall, and the beautiful crags that make their way of life possible.

1. Forearm Rock Climbing Tattoos

2. Bicep Rock Climbing Tattoos