Stencil style, black and white tattoo design of a baby angel holding a money bag with a dollar sign

No other tattoo designs convey a message as clear as word tattoos. Yeah, you’re right; it’s because the message is literally written on your skin! No cryptic symbols or surreal images for people (and most importantly, yourself) to wonder what your ink means. And although you might think that these are very simple tattoos, just wait until you see the examples we’ve rounded up in our list. They’re often very far from simple and definitely inspiring!

With tattoo trends changing almost as often as the trends on social media, there still are some tattoo styles that defy time, gaining immunity to any and all passing-by trends. Want to guess which tattoos we are talking about? Yup, you’re absolutely right; it’s American traditional tattoos! To honor this never-dying trend, we’ve rounded up some of the most beautiful specimens done in recent days, and although these old-school tattoos did change during the period of their natural evolution, the core still stayed the same.