bodyart

 
In 1882, the young Duke of York, later to become King George V, got a tattoo of a dragon while on a visit to Japan. He was a midshipman on the H.M.S. Baccante. The Japanese tattooist Hori Chyo executed the work. Whether perceived as creatures of air, fire, land or water, dragons are popular across all styles of tattoo designs.

Dragon Tattoo Design by Don Ed Hardy
This tattoo design book by renowned tattooist Hardy features nothing but dragons. There is a basic history and physiology of the creatures, along with tips for how to best recreate Hardy's drawings as tattoos, either as stand-alone pieces or integrated into existing ink.

At present, this book is not in print and you will have to search hard and perhaps get a used copy if you wish to own it. I feel this would be entirely worth it given the quality of the publication, put out by Hardy himself in an oversize hardcover edition.

Chinese Dragons Tattoos by Bruce Lafontaine - 6 stick-on designs

Dragons Vol 1 - by J.D. Crowe, spiral-bound, 20 pages of black and white line designs.

reign of fireReign Of Fire

Dragons have been awoken from a long slumber under London, and are now scorching the world. Christian Bale leads a castle of surviors in England, Matthew McConaughey leads a team of Americans hunting the lone male dragon. McConaughey's character has great tribal style arm tattoos and an elaborate chest piece. This movie is rather dim and dark in picture quality and you will have to adjust your brightness to see these tattoos clearly.