Every brand craves a loyal and engaged audience, and perhaps the ultimate sign of devotion? A tattoo. Arguably, endorsing a Harley bike, Nike sneaker or Mario video game in ink on one’s body far outweighs any website star rating.
A new survey scoured social media to determine the world's most tattooed brands, based on how many have ‘grammed their logo and mascot body art.
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The study, from coupon site DealA, examined the most popular brands and determined which inspired the most ink via the number of posts using "#[brand]tattoo" hashtags on Instagram.
Check out the top five as well as the broader list of most tattooed brands below.
Nike was the highest-ranking fashion brand on the list. Its iconic swoosh is a versatile logo to incorporate into a tattoo. Some tats simply feature it on its own, as a small accent, while others incorporate it into larger vignettes or on inked illustrations of entire shoes.
Other fashion brands that ranked include Vans, with only slightly fewer posts, and designer labels such as Dior, Chanel and Gucci.
A common thread on the ranking is nostalgia—brands that adults loved as kids have now found their way onto their biceps. Lego ranks as the top-inked toy brand. Some brick-themed tattoos are replicas of the square blocks, while others use the toys in blocky versions of pop culture characters including Harley Quinn, Frankenstein, Wolverine, Boba Fett and more.
Nostalgia has been a strong element in Lego’s recent marketing, whihch cleverly targeted adults in need of an emotional escape as sales went sky-high during the pandemic. Its line of advanced difficulty sets became popular on social platforms including TikTok.
Motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson has cultivated an entire culture around its tattoos, which are a staple of the biker style. With a patch-like logo that can often be spotted peeking out from beneath leather vests, Harley designs often include skulls, eagles and American flags.
Another nostalgia brand coming off a decent pandemic sales bump, Nintendo’s vast roster of colorful and dynamic characters are a natural fit across a spectrum of interests. Well-known characters including Mario, Princess Peach, Zelda and the entire Pokédex star in vibrant designs varying from cartoonish pixelated works to hyper-realism.
According to Nintendo’s financial briefing from Fall 2021, a graph showing the age distribution of its Switch console revealed the bulk of players are in the 20-30 group with a decent showing in the demographic 10 years older. As such, its recent hits such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild have tattoo hashtags of their own with numbers high enough for solo rankings on the list (5,732 and 7,346 posts respectively).
In a surprise to no one, Disney tops the list of most tattooed brands. The brand's stories and characters have inspired tats across a diverse range of fan groups. Spanning every tattoo trend, the “#DisneyTattoo” hashtag accompanies calligraphy of popular movie lines, “Star Wars” spacecrafts, the minimalist Mickey logo, a pop-art Cinderella, a pin-up Maleficent and more.
Those who were children during the release of classics like “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King” are now in the age group with the largest share of tattoos, according to a recent survey by Statista.
See the full list of most tatted brands below.
