Sarah/Buffy's Tattoos

Sarah herself as three separate tattoos. One on her right hip (found more towards her backside), one on her left hip and the first one she ever got is on her ankle.

The tattoo on her ankle symbolized the end of a rocky relationship and Sarah felt that she had to mark that relationship in some way. It's the Tao symbol for Patience. There aren't any clear shots of it, but it's supposed to be a dagger dangling over a heart. The symbol in question is essentially the symbol for Patience, and makes use of the character normally translated as "heart." 'Heart' forms the basis for many words and can also be interpreted to mean "mind" for it is thought that the heart governs all human thought and action. Another aspect of the symbol is the knife, also called "jen", (spelled with an upside down 'v' accent over the 'e') which bares down on the heart. This character, the knife blade, can also be translated as 'tolerance'; the Chinese language makes no distinction between this attribute and 'patience', for the firm heart is also a tolerant one. To Sarah it represented that the heart is very fragile and can be broken very easily. This is the first tattoo she ever got, but it's never been stated how old she was when she got it. (thanks to Gill for some info)

The second tattoo is the ancient script form of the Chinese word xi, which means happiness or good luck.  It measures one inch in length and it's in solid black. Before getting it Sarah was with an interview from Rolling Stone and told him that despite the fact that she had an appointment, she wasn't sure if she would go through with it. She researched it in a Chinese symbol book prior to getting the tattoo. She got it done at Sunset Strip Tattoos in Los Angeles. (Thanks to Josh who was smart enough to discover some of this info in US magazine.)

Usually Sarah's tattoos are covered up when she's on Buffy.
     
Sarah's got another tattoo! It is pic of a dragonfly located on her lower back. "... the dragonflies are something Freddie, and I share, our love of dragons and dragon flies." My best estimate was that she had the inking done sometime around February 2002. Click the image for a bigger scan. She also got this done at Sunset Strip Tattoos, located in Los Angeles.  

 

Buffy has only had one tattoo which she got during her junior year of high school. She was tattooed with the mark of Eyghon by Ethan Rayne in the episode "The Dark Age". It was done in solid black with a bottle of ink and a regular needle. It was done freehand and thankfully Ethan was enough of an artist to actually create a decent replica. It was found at the base of her neck and was applied there to detract Eyghon's attention away from Ethan. Buffy was not pleased with the tattoo and later had it removed.
This is the tattoo that everyone keeps pointing out to me in Buffy vs Dracula, the season 5 opener. I hadn't posted a picture of it until now because I didn't have a clear enough shot of it (thanks Spoonfan!) but I do now and the best I can make out from it is that it's some sort of flower. Possibly a rose with a leaf on the bottom. It's very much a fake or temporary tattoo because we never see it again.