TattooAtlas / Reference Check

Is that design AI?

You found a tattoo design, or someone sent you one, and something feels off. Check it here before it goes on your body. This tool reads the hidden credentials AI generators embed in their files, then runs the image past a checklist written by a working tattoo artist: line logic, gradient physics, detail density.

Free. No account. Your image is checked in memory and thrown away. We never store it or train anything on it.

Drop your reference here

or tap to choose a file · JPEG, PNG, WebP · up to 8MB

Your uploaded reference

Reading the file, then looking at it the way a tattooer would…

Want this on skin, done right?

AI or not, a design is only half the job. A real artist adapts it to your body, your skin, and the way ink ages. Browse the hand-checked directories, or email [email protected] with your city and this design and we will hand-pick three real artists for you. Free, no commission, that is the whole point of the Atlas.

How the check works

  1. Embedded credentials. Files from ChatGPT, Adobe Firefly and others carry hidden provenance data. If we find it, the answer is certain: the generator labeled it itself.
  2. A tattooer's eye. No label found? We look at the image against a working artist's checklist and give you a score with the reasons in plain words.

The straight talk

  • Screenshots and re-uploads strip embedded labels, and Midjourney embeds none at all. So "no label found" never means "real".
  • Google AI images carry an invisible watermark only Google can read. To check one, upload it to the Gemini app and ask if it was made by Google AI.
  • The score is an informed read of the image, not a verdict on any person. When it is uncertain, it says so.
  • Plenty of AI designs cannot be tattooed as shown: detail that dies on skin, gradients ink cannot hold, compositions that ignore how a body moves. The check flags those too.
  • For the strongest check, get the original file. Ask for the design as a document or attachment, not a photo or screenshot. Screenshots erase the evidence.
  • Copying a whole custom design onto your body is the one move tattoo culture does not forgive. Collages and references are normal; full copies are not. The originality check tells you which one you are holding.