All Magical Tattoos In Dungeons & Dragons, Ranked (2023)

Officially revamped for 5E in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, magical tattoos provide creative flair for your appearance and playstyle. Most pack a punch in combat, some even tipping the scales between life and death, but others aren't for everyone.

Magical tattoos are considered magic items, so almost all options must be attuned to your character. If you're already attuned to three items, getting inked isn't an option, but not to worry: The magic of tattoos is bound in needles, not an artist, so you'll be able to carry these enhancements in your back pocket. Magical tattoos are removable and can be placed back into a needle, providing a Dungeon Master with exciting options (and DMs already have so many that newcomers may find themselves overwhelmed) for how players encounter these rare treasures. This also gives the player a handy way to pawn them when they see something shinier.

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Updated April 11, 2023 by Luke Ackroyd: D&D magic tattoos are an enjoyable concept to include in your 5E D&D campaign. These magical tattoos give you valuable perks that will always allow for exciting, creative situations. They also look pretty amazing and can make spellcasting seem all the more thrilling than just pointing and casting a spell. It is also an excellent way for characters not usually magical to have some magic subtly. There are 11 magic tattoos added in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, so deciding what magic tattoo to get can be tricky. So, with that in mind, this D&D magic tattoos list has been updated to give you all the essential information you need to help you decide what tattoo would be best for your character.

11 Absorbing

• Quick Summary: It provides damage resistance and absorption.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Very Rare - The tattoo covers two limbs or your entire chest or upper back.
• Attunement: Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: The tattoo will have the distinct color of the damage it resists.

The Absorbing Tattoo grants the wearer resistance to a single magical damage type, which your DM either chooses for you, or rolls for randomly. On top of that, when you are hit with that specific type of damage, you can use a reaction to become immune to that damage and regain half the damage dealt as HP instead.

Unfortunately, due to the scarcity of some damage types, this power can either be the ace up your sleeve or a bench warmer. Although you may not come up against your tattoo type often, very little can stand in your way if you do.

10 Illuminator

• Quick Summary: You can conceal written messages for you and another person.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Common - The tattoo covers your hand, foot, or a quarter of a limb.
• Attunement: Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: It depicts quills, pens, and calligraphy.

If your character has a penchant for secrecy, the Illuminator's Tattoo is perfect. With this tattoo on your skin, your fingertip becomes a working ink pen that will never waste. It also allows you to cause a single page of writing to be invisible to everyone but yourself and one other person of your choice for an entire day.

The limit of this spell is your creativity. If you need to communicate with an NPC across enemy lines, you can do so. If you've been plotting to hire some help from the Nine Hells, but your friends would disapprove, they're none the wiser. It's hardly the most conventionally powerful effect, though.

9 Masquerade

• Quick Summary: You can cast Disguise Self and change the tattoo design.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Common - The tattoo covers your hand, foot, or a quarter of a limb.
• Attunement: Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: It shapeshifts on command to whatever you wish.

The Masquerade Tattoo will equip you with the ability to blend into the background of any social situation. This tattoo allows you to freely manipulate its size, placement, color, and imagery, an invaluable tool for gaining access to a thieves guild or local gang.

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Also, with this tattoo, you can cast the first level spell Disguise Self once per day, which inquiring minds will need to beat a DC 13 Check to see through. Even if your character hasn't focused on their Charisma stat, they'll fit in perfectly anywhere with this handy effect.

8 Spellwrought

• Quick Summary: It allows you to cast a one-use-only spell.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Varies depending on spell level.

• Attunement: Not Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: Your choice of design.

A Spellwrought Tattoo allows you to cast a single spell predetermined by the DM without needing material components, upon which the tattoo would disappear. The spell provided can be from a Cantrip to a fifth level and comes preset with Ability Modifiers, Save DCs, and Attack Bonuses.

This may sound like a spell scroll, but a spell scroll is technically illegible to anyone not belonging to the class from which the spell is derived. The spells of a Spellwrought tattoo may not exceed past the fifth level, but anyone can use it. Your tattoo glows faintly while you use it, making it a visually impressive way to cast your spell.

7 Lifewell

• Quick Summary: Thea tattoo provides necrotic resistance and a once-per-day death avoidance.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Very rare - The tattoo covers two limbs or your entire chest or upper back.
• Attunement: Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: Imagery linked to rebirth and life.

The Lifewell tattoo makes it much harder for death to claim you. Right off the bat, you'll receive resistance to necrotic damage. Although situational, several highly damaging spells deal necrotic damage, so it's nice to have them on hand against those formidable undead foes and spell casters. This tattoo also prevents death once a day by dropping you to one HP instead.

Having a preventative feature like this during earlier levels is crucial. If you manage to survive being at one HP, that's one day more your new character lives to tell the tale.

6 Ghost Step

• Quick Summary: You can take an incorporeal form for one turn.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Very rare - The tattoo covers two limbs or your entire chest or upper back.
• Attunement: Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: The tattoo is sometimes blurry, flickering on the skin.

If you don't believe in ghosts, the Ghost Step Tattoo may have you rethinking. On a bonus action, you can expend one of three charges from this tattoo to enter into a Ghostly Form until your next turn, giving you resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage from non-magical attacks, freedom from restraints or grapples, and the ability to walk through walls.

There isn't a single danger you can't get away from with this tattoo. Just be sure not to end your turn inside a wall during your Ghostly Form, or you'll suffer some force damage. Another downside is that it feels like it should last longer than a single turn of combat.

5 Shadowfell Brand

• Quick Summary: The tattoo provides darkvision, advantage on stealth checks, and half damage once per day.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Rare - The tattoo covers one limb.
• Attunement: Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: Abstract shapes with dark colors.

The Shadowfell Brand grants you abilities derived from the infamous Plane of Shadow, making your ability to conceal yourself as sneaky as ever. If you didn't have it already, you'd receive darkvison out to 60 feet, which is nice, but a common trait among many playable races. The tattoo also grants you advantage on all stealth checks and the chance for you to, as a reaction, halves all incoming damage to you once per day.

The Shadowfell Brand's potential depends on how your group handles spying and surveillance. If your class or a racial trait doesn't already have the abilities provided by the tattoo, it can change how your character plays entirely.

4 Eldritch Claw

• Quick Summary: You have stronger melee attacks with a longer range.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Uncommon - The tattoo covers half a limb or your scalp.
• Attunement: Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: The shape of sharp claws and spikes.

While on your skin, the Eldritch Claw Tattoo powers up your fists by causing unarmed strikes to not only deal magic damage but also receive a +1 bonus to the attack and damage rolls of said strikes. The tattoo also improves your action economy by granting you a new bonus action, which allows your strikes or weapon attacks to reach up to 15 feet away and deal an extra dose of 1d6 force damage for an entire minute.

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This tattoo's first ability is redundant if you're playing a monk, but the bonus action is a welcome sight for anyone. The Polearm Master feat is an especially nasty pairing for the Eldritch Claw Tattoo, as your weapons' reach would then be 25 feet away. It also adds another bonus action for you to eke out extra damage.

3 Coiling Grasp

• Quick Summary: You can deal force damage and grapple an enemy.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Uncommon - The tattoo covers half a limb or your scalp.
• Attunement: Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: Inky tendrils that reach out when the spell is used.

The Coiling Grasp Tattoo allows you to use your action to grapple someone within 15 feet of you. As long as the grapple is successful, it also deals 3d6 force damage and requires a DC 14 Strength or Dexterity Check to escape.

This kind of reach for a grapple creates many opportunities to synergize with your fellow players. For instance, that sorcerer can finally cast an AoE spell on an enemy in your grasp without cooking you. What's nice about this feature is its unlimited use per day, which other magical tattoos do not share.

2 Barrier

• Quick Summary: The tattoo increases your AC.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Varies.

• Attunement: Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: It depicts a shield with liquid metal-style ink.

Like the Spellwrought Tattoo, this tattoo's rarity varies. The Barrier Tattoo provides you with an Armor Class that scales with your dexterity modifier, provided you aren't already wearing armor. The Armor Class goes up with the item's rarity, with the rarest offering an AC of 18, equivalent to plate armor.

The strength of this tattoo lies in the fact that you don't need armor proficiency of any kind to benefit from its defensive capability. Pair that with the fact that you can still use a shield, and the value of this tattoo speaks for itself.

1 Blood Fury

• Quick Summary: You deal necrotic damage when you make weapon attacks.
• Tattoo Rarity / Coverage: Legendary - The tattoo covers two limbs and your torso.
• Attunement: Required
• Tattoo Aesthetic: A furious, angry pattern.

The Blood Fury Tattoo is the only magical tattoo categorized as legendary, and it's plain to see why. This vicious-sounding ink comes equipped with ten charges, which you can expend for one of two of the tattoo's functions. Its first ability is leech-like: when you hit a creature with an attack, you can use a charge to deal an extra 4d6 necrotic damage, then regain HP equal to the necrotic damage dealt. If you have a reaction, you can expend a charge for the second function, which is a type of counter, letting you make a melee attack with advantage on a creature that just hit you.

Want to be a one-warrior army? Stick this on your fighter with Extra Attack and Action Surge and take a 3-level dip into Swashbuckler Rogue.

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