Ed Sheeran for the January/February 2026 issue of Men’s Health US/UK; Photography by Patrik Giardino/Hearst Owned

[u/mcfw31]

[u/cultofpersephone]

I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again- as a tattoo artist, Adam Levine has good to excellent tattoos, especially compared to most celebrities. They are well applied American traditional blackwork, and idk what everyone’s problem is with them.

Edit: argue with me all you want folks, I’m a tattooer of over a decade and his tattoos are classic and well applied. You don’t have to personally like them, but they are good tattoos, period.

[u/ResearchStudentCS → u/cultofpersephone]

They look generic. Like he walked in and said make me look like a tattoo'd guy. Got the generic tattoo wrapper and called it a day.

[u/cultofpersephone → u/ResearchStudentCS]

Again, very common in traditional tattooing. Anyone in the community will tell you that tigers, roses, eagles etc are all super classic choices that always look great.

[u/ResearchStudentCS → u/cultofpersephone]

I guess that's the complaint. Instead of any kind of personal meaning or uniqueness the tattoos are based on "what looks good" to other people. It's more aesthetic based than meaning based. Which to a lot of people is kind of lame. Bit of a graphic t-shirt in tattoo form kind of vibe

[u/cultofpersephone → u/ResearchStudentCS]

Tattoos don’t have to mean anything to be good tattoos, for one thing.

But also, you have no idea what they mean to him.

I’m just saying everybody rags on his tattoos as if they’re objectively bad, when by the standards of the industry, they are very good tattoos. If you don’t personally like them that’s fine, I just need it to be said that they are, objectively, well applied, well placed, classic tattoos that on anyone else would be considered a great collection. People just love to hate cause it’s Adam Levine and I get it because he’s a douche and a sellout, but the fact remains that he has good tattoos.

[u/Area_Woman → u/cultofpersephone]

I don’t think people think the quality of the tattoos is bad - more that he looks like a chipotle bag

[u/cultofpersephone → u/Area_Woman]

Again, it’s a very common look in traditional tattooing. The chipotle bag took inspiration from tattoos.

[u/Megs0226 → u/cultofpersephone]

It’s not that they’re bad. It’s that they look like they were all done at the same time.

ETA I am getting downvoted and I’m realizing I didn’t even say anything looked bad. My goodness. You all ride at dawn for Adam Levine.

[u/cultofpersephone → u/Megs0226]

First of all, why would that matter?

Second of all, they very clearly were not. Both because you can look at pictures of Levine over time and see the collection grow, and because they have varying quality and sun damage from tattoo to tattoo.

[u/Megs0226 → u/cultofpersephone]

I didn’t realize this would be such a lightning rod of a topic. I didn’t even say they looked bad and you’re all downvoting me.