20 Discreet Tattoo Placements That Are Safe for Work

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Tattoo artist Katherine D. Vargas shares her recommendation for where to place an easy-to-hide tattoo

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IN THIS ARTICLE

1 Behind the ear

2 Back of the neck

3 Inside the lip

4 Shoulder

5 Armpit

6 Inner bicep

7 Inner forearm

8 Side of a finger

9 Sternum

10 Ribcage

11 Side of a breast

12 Stomach

13 Shoulder blade

14 Spine

15 Lower back

16 Hips

17 Buttocks

18 Inner thigh

19 Inner ankle

20 A foot or a toe

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Co-authored by Katherine D. Vargas and Elaine Heredia, BA

Last Updated: January 26, 2026 Fact Checked

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Some people want to get tattoos for themselves, but not to show them off to the whole world. Others work at companies where visible tattoos are against the dress code. In either case, you don't have to live a life without tattoos. Just get one (or ten) on a part of your body that's easy to cover up! Keep reading for a list of 20 hideable places for tattoos, with expert insight from tattoo artists Katherine D. Vargas and Michelle Myles.

What are the most hideable places for tattoos?

Tattoo artist Katherine D. Vargas suggests getting a tattoo on your inner arm, especially if you're indecisive about the placement or the design. Other places that are easy to conceal tattoos include:

• Behind your ear
• On the back of your neck
• Inside your lip
• On your shoulder
• In your armpit
• On your inner bicep

Steps

1

Behind the ear

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1. Keep this tattoo covered with medium to long hair or a headscarf. The patch of skin behind your ear is easy for most people to hide because it's right next to your hairline. To cover it with your hair, grow your hair out to your chin or below. Choose a small tattoo design so it fits behind the shell of your ear and doesn't extend down your neck, where it will be easier to see. If you have short hair, consider wearing a headscarf and covering your ears with it, or dab on a few layers of concealer.

   • Pain level: 7-9

   Meet the wikiHow Experts

   Katherine D. Vargas is a tattoo artist known for her custom floral pieces. She also specializes in black and gray realism.

   Michelle Myles is a tattoo artist and the co-owner of Daredevil Tattoo, based in New York City’s Lower East Side. She has more than 20 years of experience.
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2

Back of the neck

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1. Tug up your collar or wear your hair long in the back. The nape of your neck is the perfect hiding place for a tattoo if you have long hair and don't mind wearing it down. An added benefit of wearing your hair long and down is that you have a little more wiggle room with the tattoo's size. It can cover the entire back of your neck, as long as your hair is long enough to cover it! You can also wear shirts with high collars, like a polo, then tug the collar up to cover your ink, but you may have to choose a smaller design.

   • Pain level: 6-7

3

Inside the lip

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1. The only time people can see this tattoo is when you flip your bottom lip out. But be wary: this tattoo isn't for the faint of heart! There are a lot of nerve endings inside your mouth, especially in the lip area. Because of the location and the pain level, you're also extremely limited in the size and scope of your tattoo design, so keep that in mind.

   • Warning! Tattooing the inside of your lip poses a greater risk of infection than most tattoos due to all the bacteria in your mouth. You'll also experience a lot of pain and swelling, and acidic foods like coffee and oranges can irritate it. The tattoo may also only last a few weeks or months because of the mouth's fast cell turnover.
   • Pain level: 9-10
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4

Shoulder

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1. Hide it easily with short or long-sleeved shirts or jackets. The side and back of your shoulder are two great locations for tattoos. You can conceal them just by wearing a shirt, plus the pain level is super manageable! The one drawback is that you're limited in what styles of shirts you can wear. Short and long-sleeved shirts are fine, but sleeveless shirts, tube tops, bikini tops, and halter tops won't offer enough coverage. You'd have to wear a jacket, a sweater, or a button-down shirt over them to keep up the charade.

   • Pain level: 4

5

Armpit

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1. Conceal it with normal clothes, but beware of the pain. We're not kidding about the pain! The armpit is super sensitive, and tattoo healing can be a long, difficult process. So while it gets lots of points for being easy to hide, that benefit may be outweighed by the agony you have to endure while you're being inked. Don't get us wrong, an armpit tattoo can look extremely cool, and not many people have them. Just know there's a reason not many people have them: it hurts!

   • Pain level: 9-10
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6

Inner bicep

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1. Cover your tattoo with sleeves or hold your arms close to your torso. This tattoo location isn't completely invisible, but as long as you choose a small, thin design, it definitely won't catch much attention. Hide it by wearing shirts or outerwear (i.e., jackets, cardigans, blazers, etc.) with ¾-length or full-length sleeves. In an emergency where you don't have sleeves, tuck your upper arm close to your ribs.

   • Pain level: 6

7

Inner forearm

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1. Use your sleeve, a bracelet, or a watchband to hide this ink from sight. Not only is your inner forearm and wrist a less painful place to ink a tattoo, but you also have more options for hiding it there than on your upper arm. You're not limited to using just your shirt or jacket sleeves. A thick bracelet (or multiple bracelets), a cuff, or a thick watchband can do the job just fine!

   • Pain level: 3
   • "Every time a client asks me where they want to put [a tattoo], I always say the inner arm if they're indecisive," says Vargas. "I would never say the outer first because that's a huge commitment."
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8

Side of a finger

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1. Hide your finger tattoo with gloves or rings. Finger tattoos are surprisingly easy to hide, especially if you get them on the side. But even outside tattoos can be hidden with gloves or strategically placed rings. If you want to use rings to hide it, you'll be limited to extremely small tattoo designs, like tiny symbols or letters. A drawback of getting a finger tattoo is the high pain level. Healing is also hard because of how frequently you have to use your fingers. You might also be more susceptible to infection because of all the bacteria your fingers come in contact with.

   • Pain level: 8-9
   • While small finger tattoos can be easy to hide, Myles doesn’t recommend getting a tattoo on your actual hand, as these can be very difficult to hide.

9

Sternum

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1. Cover up your sternum with a shirt, a dress, or a bra. No doubt, sternum tattoos are easy to hide under your normal clothes, or even your bra if the tattoo is small enough. But keep in mind that getting a tattoo in this location is a painful process. The skin over your sternum bone is thin, and there isn't much muscle or fat underneath it, either. If you're a woman or someone who wears bras, you may need to go without a bra for at least a week after getting the tattoo, to give your sternum time to heal.

   • Pain level: 7
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10

Ribcage

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1. Conceal your ribcage tattoo with a shirt or a dress. The ribcage has a few good and bad things in common with the sternum as a tattoo location. On the positive side, you can hide it very easily with a shirt or a dress, meaning you can go just about anywhere and no one will see it. On the downside, it's very, very painful. The skin covering your ribs is thin, just like it is over your sternum, and there's no fat or muscle to cushion you when the tattoo needle pokes you.

   • Pain level: 9-10

11

Side of a breast

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1. Most shirt and dress styles hide this tattoo location well. It's unlikely that anyone will even know you have a tattoo on the outside of your breast unless they see you by the poolside. This tattoo will be easy to cover up with whatever top you're wearing, unless it's a bra or a bikini top. Then, if you still want to conceal it, you may need to wear a light sweater or a swimsuit cover-up. Note that this location is right smack between your ribcage and your armpit, AKA two of the most painful places to get tattoos. That makes this area one of the most painful, as well.

   • Pain level: 9-10
   • Tattoo tip: Some dresses with halter tops or no sleeves may also reveal a side boob tattoo. Try on new dresses before buying them if you're committed to keeping the tattoo hidden.
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12

Stomach

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1. A stomach tattoo is simple to conceal with everyday clothes. It gets more challenging when you want to go swimming, but even then, you can wear a one-piece swimsuit or high-waisted swim shorts. This location gives you a wide range of tattoo design options, plus the loose skin, muscle, and fat in your belly make it less painful to ink than your ribs or sternum. (People with taut abdomens may find it hurts almost as much as those areas, though.)

   • Pain level: 5

13

Shoulder blade

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1. A shoulder blade tattoo is both striking and easy to hide with most tops. The only shirts and dresses that won't provide enough coverage for this area are halter, tube-style, and sleeveless with thin straps. Tattoos look striking in this location, especially if you get the same design mirrored on both sides (i.e., angel wings), but the process is painful. The shoulder blade area is mostly bone, so it hurts a lot when the tattoo needle pokes it.

   • Pain level: 8
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14

Spine

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1. Spine tattoos are hideable and can be stunning, but prepare for pain. When your tattoo artist tattoos your spine, their needle will hit your vertebrae and cause a lot of pain. There's next to nothing to cushion the sting in this area, not even for heavyset people. Of course, if you decide to get a tattoo on your spine, you'll find it easy to cover up with everyday clothes. You can even wear sleeveless shirts with this tattoo location, whereas you can't if it's on your shoulder or shoulder blade.

   • Pain level: 9-10
   • Tattoo tip: To reduce the pain of your back tattoo, get inked to either side of your spine, not directly on top of it.

15

Lower back

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1. Hide this tattoo with long tops, dresses, or high-waisted bottoms. The lower you get tattooed on your torso, the more you can use the high waist on your pants, shorts, or skirt to hide your ink. This is especially true for your lower back, above your buttocks. This area is moderately painful, but not as painful as getting a tattoo on your spine.

   • Pain level: 5
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16

Hips

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1. Keep your hips concealed with your bottoms or your underwear. This tattoo location can be mildly or moderately painful, depending on how bony your hips are. The bonier they are, the more it's going to hurt. But there's no doubt that it's easy to conceal! You have tons of leeway when it comes to covering it up with clothes. Use oversized shirts or tunics, dresses, high-waisted pants or skirts, and even panties or boxers.

   • Pain level: 5-7

17

Buttocks

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1. Cover butt tattoos with your panties or boxers. This tattoo location is one of the most hideable options because, well, it's your butt. Most people only expose it when they're dressing, showering, or being intimate with someone. You might also expose it a little bit while swimming, if you're wearing a bikini. Otherwise, your regular underwear and bottoms will cover it perfectly. But beware: this is also an extremely painful place to get tattooed, and it's easy to mess up the design because of how people instinctively clench their butt cheeks when they're in pain.

   • Pain level: 8-10
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18

Inner thigh

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1. Pants, shorts, and skirts will hide most inner thigh tattoos. The inner thigh is a sexy place to get a tattoo, not to mention a place you can cover up easily with your bottoms. Keep in mind that booty shorts and mini-skirts may not hide it completely, depending on how far down your thigh the tattoo goes. Another thing to consider about this tattoo location is the pain level. Your inner thigh area is sensitive, so it will hurt quite a bit to get inked.

   • Pain level: 8

19

Inner ankle

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1. Hide your inner ankle tattoo with socks, high-tops, or boots. An ankle tattoo is relatively simple to cover up. Just wear long socks, sneakers with high tops, or boots that extend to the bottom of your calves. As convenient as that sounds, we won't lie: ankle tattoos come with a lot of pain. There's just nowhere for the tattoo needle to go under your skin except right into bone and tendon, leaving you twitching and sore during and after.

   • Pain level: 9-10
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20

A foot or a toe

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1. Cover the tattoo on your foot with socks and shoes, but beware of recovery. If you get a tattoo on the top or bottom of your foot or on your toes, you're a brave soul! This is legitimately one of the most painful tattoo placement areas on your entire body. But if you can grin and bear it (and stay still for your tattoo artist), you can get a unique tattoo and hide it with your favorite socks and shoes.

   • Pain level: 10

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