History Main / AnimatedTattoo

* ''Film/{{Elektra}}'': One of the villains can bring the many animals tattooed on his body to life. It's apparently not that rare in this universe, either -- right before she kills him, Elektra [[PreAssKickingOneLiner quips]] "Nice trick, but I've seen it before."

* In ''Literature/Overlord2012'', the leader of the drug trafficking department, Hilma Cygnaeus, has a viper tattoo on her right arm. At her command, it can come to life and inject her victim with a deadly toxin, although the skill has a fairly long cooldown if used. It's also her only method of defense, so if confronted with, say, a druid untold dozens of levels stronger than her that isn't falling for her seductress act, it doesn't help.
* ''Manga/SoulEater'''s Medusa has a pet snake that disguises itself as a tattoo. ...or is it a tattoo that becomes a snake?

* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfic ''Fanfic/AfterTheEndArabellaAndZsenya'', Charlie Weasley has a dragon tattoo that can move and breathe fire.
* In ''Fanfic/BloodAndRevolution'', Aoshi's tattoos start to move when [[spoiler: be begins to succumb to a chaos curse]].

* In ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/616867 Left As Ghosts]]'', a ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' fanfic, Terezi's dragon tattoo is probably sentient, might be able to read her thoughts, and is named Pyralspite. It can interact with the world, but that causes it to fade- requiring periodic touch-ups with ink (and for it to absorb blood). It acts as armor for the skin it's currently on and helps Terezi navigate after losing her sight.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action ]]
* ''Film/DuckSoup'': In this Creator/MarxBrothers movie, Harpo shows a tattoo of a doghouse -- and a live-action dog sticks his head out of it and barks.
* ''Film/{{Elektra}}'': One of the villains can bring the many animals tattooed on his body to life. Apparently it's not that rare in that universe, either -- right before she kills him, Elektra quips [[PreAssKickingOneLiner "Nice trick, but I've seen it before."]]
* In ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' and the later films, the Dark Marks inscribed on the Death Eaters' arms move.

* ''Film/TheTattooist'': A variation: tattoos as a form of curse that spreads over the body before poisoning the victim / drowning them in ink.

* Creator/RayBradbury:
** ''The Illustrated Man'' features tattoos that are animated and tell stories as a framing device.
** Bradbury also gave Mr. Dark tattoos that move and mesmerize Jim and Will in ''Literature/SomethingWickedThisWayComes''. It was depicted perfectly in the film.

* In the ''Charm of Magpies'' series, a gay Victorian supernatural detective series by KJ Charles, Earl Lucien Vaudrey's eldritch powers (derived via a mystical connection with all magpies) are manifested by several large magpie tattoos on his person that move and change position in moments of agitation, and sometimes even transfer to others.

* Acheron, a god in Sherrilyn Kenyon's ''Literature/TheDarkHunters'' series, has a tattoo that is also his personal demon Simi, literally.
* In ''The Crystal Prison'', the second book of Creator/RobinJarvis' ''Literature/DeptfordMice'' trilogy, Madame Akkikuyu has a tattooed face on her ear that will move and speak to her at night. As it turns out, it is possessed by [[spoiler:the spirit of [[BigBad Jupiter]]]], who tricks Akkikuyu into releasing him from limbo.
* In Creator/NealStephenson 's ''Literature/TheDiamondAge'', nanotechnology has evolved to include mediatronic tattoos. In fact, a nameless woman appears naked and has a full-body mediatronic tattoo; even her hair changes color and projects images.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': In ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' Commander Sam Vimes receives a marking on his wrist which is more than just a scar. It is the embodiment of an ancient Dwarven spirit of justice and retribution and takes on sentient life whenever he needs its help.

* ''Literature/{{Genome}}'', Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's novel, involved a character who had a tattoo of an imp on his shoulder. While not living per se, it was technically an LCD screen hooked up to his nervous system and effectively displays his emotions. He ''is'' a mutant whose emotions were altered (Case in point: as a genetically engineered pilot, he can only love [[CargoShip spaceships]]). He initially wears sleeveless shirts and considers getting a spacesuit with a transparent shoulder, but since the novel is about understanding yourself, he eventually covers the tattoo with clothes.

* ''Penny Dreadful'', a ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' novel, features Baron, a mage who casts spells by making his tattoos come alive.

* In ''Literature/{{Pact}}'', Blake Thorburn has tattoos of birds that change to reflect his state of being, and eventually gains the ability to remove the birds and send them to do simple tasks for him.
* In the third book, ''Specials'', of the ''Literature/{{Uglies}}'' series, Tally and the Cutters have facial tattoos that pulse with blood pressure.

* A mild example in ''Series/TheInvisibleMan'', where the Keeper gives Darien the tattoo of a coiled snake on his arm with a chip embedded under it to detect the level of [[AppliedPhlebotinum quicksilver]] saturation in his blood. This is shown by the number of links on the snake turning red.

* A MonsterOfTheWeek in ''Series/{{Reaper}}'' could bring his tattoos to life--including the [[PlayingWithFire flames]].

[[folder:Music]]

[[folder:Music Videos]]
* The video for "Dark Wave" by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks starts out with a shot of a tattoo-covered man sleeping in the nude - once the music starts, his tattoos start moving to the beat and sometimes interacting with each other, as the camera pans to various parts of his body. There's even a tattoo of Stephen Malkmus himself that's animated to mime some of the lyrics.
[[/folder]]

%%* Similarly ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' has "nanotats".

* In ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' this is possible with "nanorobotically created and controlled pseudo-chromatophores", which essentially turn a patch of skin into an LCD screen.

* Vulcan Raven in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' makes his forehead tattoo, a raven, perch on Snake's shoulder and taste his blood to check his lineage. Also, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen a removed boss]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', Chinaman, would have had the power to turn his dragon tattoos into real dragons when he was underwater.

-->"Say hello, Roger!"\\
"Hello, Roger!"

* In the MMO ''VideoGame/{{Dofus}}'' the Sacrier class uses their own blood as a weapon, but for its successor ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'' they control their tattoos instead.

[[folder:Web Original]]

** {{Mega Corp}}s from the Non Coercive Zone often pay people to have animated ads tattooed on their skin.

[[folder:Websites]]
* ''Website/SCPFoundation'':
** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-021 SCP-021]] ("Skin Wyrm") is a tattoo dragon. It eats pigment found in the host's skin, which could be either melanin or other tattoos, which it prefers. Its movement painfully irritates the skin almost like a tattoo serially removed and reapplied would feel like, giving the people hosting it an increased pain threshold but also greater aggression.
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-834 SCP-834 ("Marked")]]. Approximately 6 months after an SCP-834 marker is used to draw something on a human body, the drawing animates and attacks the victim.
[[/folder]]

* Freakshow's minion Lydia on ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' can bring her tattoos to life and come off her body.
* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Amy gets a talking devil tattoo that keeps teasing Kif for being so cheap. She also has several on her butt.

* In ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'', passengers from Earth receive glowing green numbers on their hand, representing the psychological issue that brought them to the train in the first place. The size of the number represents how bad of a problem the train thinks you have; a low number means that the problem isn't very bad and/or you're close to overcoming it, while a high number means that you have a big problem that will require a lot of work to overcome. The number will change during the passenger's stay on the train; it gets lower as the passenger learns their lessons, higher if they get worse, and when it hits 0 you leave the train. If you start actively lashing out and causing problems for denizens and other passengers, it'll grow and grow until it reaches up to your arm, then across your face, then over your entire body, even going ''inside your mouth''.[[spoiler: The only passenger who got this bad being Simon Laurent of Season 3, when he tried to kill Grace after she saved his life.]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MerrieMelodies'' short "Love and Curses", a sailor takes a deep puff from his cigar, then exhales it through the chimney of the boat tattooed on his chest.

* Two aged sailors in the ''Creator/{{Terrytoons}}'' short "The Sailor's Home" show each other their tattoos. One of them has a snake on his arm, which the other doesn't care about, and a rose on his head. The other sailor takes a closer look at the rose and a bee flies out of it. The other sailor then shows off the mermaid tattooed on his chest, which he claims depicts the mermaid he married in his youth. She abandoned him when he returned to the surface, but the memory of her literally dove onto his chest and became a tattoo.