20 So It Goes Tattoo Ideas: Best Small Tattoos (October 2026)

So it goes tattoo ideas work best when the phrase does the talking. Two words, a long history and enough room to make the lettering personal, which is why this one keeps turning up on studio walls and in readers’ saved folders. The phrase comes from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, where it repeats throughout as a flat little marker after each death, and it later became the signature catchphrase of Calvin and Hobbes. Readers in book forums count roughly 106 repetitions in the novel. Nobody needs that backstory to like the tattoo, but it explains why the words feel calm instead of bleak.

Below are twenty versions, from a whisper-thin script on the inner forearm to a stained-glass rose on the shoulder cap. Every entry covers placement, real-world size, style, pain and one way to make it yours. If you’re planning ahead, autumn and winter are the easiest seasons to book because sleeves and heavy layers hide fresh work, and good artists usually need a few weeks of lead time.

So It Goes Tattoo Ideas: Quick Guide

1. Fine-Line ‘So It Goes’ Script on the Inner Forearm

The simplest version is a single unbroken line of cursive running along the inner forearm, roughly the length of your hand. No symbols, no frame, nothing to explain. This is the one most people picture first when they search so it goes tattoo ideas, and it holds up well because two words give the line room to breathe.

People choose it as a private reminder rather than a display piece. It sits where you can read it yourself and where nobody else sees it, which suits the phrase’s tone.

Placement: inner forearm, a few inches above the wrist crease, or mirrored on the outer arm. Size: 3 by 1 inch (7.5 by 2.5 cm). Style: fine line script. Pain: low to medium, and the forearm rarely stays completely numb. Fine script softens as it ages, so heavier paper-thin strokes than the reference drawing help. Make it yours: add the year you finished the book that mattered that year, tucked under the second word.

2. Two-Line ‘And So It Goes’ Blackwork on the Wrist

Stack the words as two lines of solid bold sans-serif, with and sitting alone above so it goes. The extra preposition makes the phrase a complete thought, and the block lettering gives it weight that a cursive never has. It is the most legible option in this list and the safest bet for a first small text tattoo.

Most wearers I know treat it as a quiet badge of a favourite book rather than a public statement. The heavier line survives handling and sun better than script does.

Placement: inner wrist, centred between the wrist crease and the forearm bend. Size: 2 by 1.2 inch (5 by 3 cm). Style: blackwork with print lettering. Pain: medium, mostly from wrist bones and the pulse point rather than the letters. Expect a year of softening at the stroke edges. Make it yours: keep the lowercase set and swap the top line for a single initial in matching weight.

3. Fine-Line Open Door and Horizon on the Bicep

Instead of the words alone, this version draws a doorway standing open onto a flat horizon line and a low sun. The letters run small beneath the frame, or sit inside the doorway itself. The idea is forward motion rather than resignation, and the same phrase carries it.

It suits people who read the novel as a book about moving through grief rather than a book about giving up. A single muted colour on the sun keeps it from looking like a stencil.

Placement: outer bicep reads best because there’s flat skin in every direction. Size: 4 by 5 inch (10 by 12.5 cm). Style: fine line with one colour accent. Pain: low, the outer arm is forgiving. The horizon line is a single stroke, so it can be retouched cleanly if it ever softens. Make it yours: have the artist hide a small numeral in the doorframe, like a street number.

4. Blackwork Rose Wrapping Around ‘So It Goes’

Here the lettering becomes the stem. A heavily shaded rose sits above the words and a couple of leaves curl down across the letterforms, so the type has to stay thick and confident to survive underneath. Black dominates, with a deep red in the petals if you want one colour.

Floral pieces get chosen for the growth-and-thorns half of the metaphor as much as the phrase. It reads as something you keep and tend rather than a message aimed at strangers.

Placement: outer forearm, or the inner arm if the leaves wrap the other way. Size: 4 by 3 inch (10 by 7.5 cm). Style: blackwork with an optional red wash. Pain: medium, and the shaded petals take longer so the session runs long. Solid black ages best of anything here, while thin outlines in the leaves fade first. Make it yours: add a thorn at the end of the stem, positioned where the words end.

5. Minimal Red Umbrella on the Calf

A tiny single-needle umbrella in one red, with three straight rain marks and nothing else. Most of the phrase stays out of the drawing and appears only as a line of small type near the top, or on a second pass later. Rain-soaked and understated, no characters and no cover art.

The umbrella is a quieter nod to the book than a figure would be, and it works for readers who want the reference without explaining it. Single-needle red ages surprisingly well if the artist packs the colour properly.

Placement: outer calf, vertical, is where this composition has the most room. Size: 2.5 by 3 inch (6.5 by 7.5 cm). Style: minimal single-needle linework. Pain: low, calf skin is thick and gives a little. Solid red can wash out over a decade in sunlight, so expect a touch-up. Make it yours: change the rain marks into three small dots and use them as the only decoration.

6. Vintage Suitcase with ‘So It Goes’ on the Thigh

Draw a battered suitcase with rounded corners, worn edges and two blank travel stickers, then hang the phrase from it on a paper tag. Keeping the stickers unlettered keeps the piece original and stops it becoming a wall of names you will resent in ten years.

It suits people who came to the phrase through travel or through moving on from something, and it’s a giftable design because it reads well in a small square format.

Placement: upper outer thigh has enough flat area for the full silhouette. Size: 4 by 5 inch (10 by 12.5 cm). Style: illustrative linework with light stipple shading. Pain: medium, and the thigh flinches more than people expect near the knee. Stipple shading is the part that softens, so keep it sparse. Make it yours: add a tiny coded airport tag with the city you were born in.

7. Typewriter Key Phrase on the Forearm

Three round typewriter keys on a short bar, each with a single letter, and the phrase spelled out across them. The letters are the point, so the artist needs clean type design rather than scribbled detail. It looks like a line lifted straight out of a manuscript.

This is the version for someone who writes, journals, or reads with a pen in hand. The mechanical letterforms also make the phrase feel like a draft rather than a declaration, which suits the novel’s narrator.

Placement: inner forearm, horizontal, has the room for three circles. Size: 3.5 by 1.5 inch (9 by 4 cm). Style: fine line with light shading on the key caps. Pain: medium, the circles mean more needle entries. Lettering inside the keys is the weak point, so ask for bold capitals rather than script. Make it yours: have one key left blank and let a tiny character or object sit on it.

8. Endless Staircase and ‘So It Goes’ on the Calf

A staircase that turns one corner and somehow meets itself, drawn as a clean geometric loop with consistent line weight, with the phrase in small type at the base. The looping structure carries the meaning on its own. Readers tend to describe it as a thing you cannot get out of and a thing you keep climbing.

It is the most conceptual design here and the one that most rewards a patient artist. Geometric work only works if the angles are true, and that takes time to stencil.

Placement: outer calf, running vertically, gives the loop its length. Size: 4 by 6 inch (10 by 15 cm). Style: geometric fine line. Pain: medium, with more sting where the shin muscle is close to the bone. Hair on the calf sits over the design, which affects the final look more than the pain does. Make it yours: put the number of steps you have climbed in a significant year inside the loop.

9. Small Chess Knight and Acceptance Phrase on the Arm

A single knight piece in black and grey shading, mane and base defined with soft gradients, with the phrase in a clean line underneath. One piece rather than a full board keeps it small and readable. The subject is a decision you cannot take back, which is the part of the novel that keeps people turning pages.

It reads as strategy and acceptance, and plenty of wearers pair it later with a matching small piece on the other arm.

Placement: inner upper arm, vertical, keeps the piece upright when the arm is down. Size: 2.5 by 4 inch (6.5 by 10 cm). Style: black and grey realism. Pain: medium, mostly the soft shading in the mane. Grey shading spreads a little as it settles, so the artist should start a shade darker than looks right in the chair. Make it yours: rotate the knight to face the inside of your arm, toward you.

10. Broken Clock with Fine-Line ‘So It Goes’ on the Wrist

An original clock face, slightly tilted, with one hand stopped close to midnight and a single crack running from the edge. The phrase sits underneath in loose script. Nothing about it imitates a specific book object, so it stays an original composition.

Time running out and being accepted anyway is the meaning most people read into it. The stopped hand is the emotional centre, the words are the caption.

Placement: inner wrist, though the wrist is a difficult canvas for anything round. Size: 2 by 2.5 inch (5 by 6.5 cm). Style: fine line with light shading. Pain: medium, and the wrist crease pulls the skin in different directions while the clock is being placed. Round detail on an inner wrist is where tiny lettering blurs fastest, so keep the numerals to ticks. Make it yours: have the crack stop just short of the face, with the last time from a specific day in the gap.

11. Red Thread Tied Around the Wrist

A single red line of ink circles a thin black line of type, as though a thread had been tied around the words. It is one of the most requested so it goes tattoo ideas because it looks like two small tattoos collaborating. Two colours, no shading, almost no black mass.

Red thread motifs usually arrive through grief work, a friend, or a hard year, and the phrase sits comfortably beside that reading.

Placement: inner wrist, horizontal, so the thread reads as circling the text. Size: 2.5 inch wide (6.5 cm). Style: minimal fine line, two inks. Pain: medium, and the wrist is a busy surface for anything that must be level. Fine red on the inner arm is the first thing to fade, so plan on a refresh. Make it yours: replace one word with a date in the same thin type, leaving the thread around the date.

12. Small Dancing Figure Beneath ‘So It Goes’

An abstract figure caught mid-turn, drawn in loose brush marks rather than clean outlines, with the phrase in small type above it. Keeping the figure original avoids any character or likeness, and the loose edges make it look like a memory rather than a portrait.

The gesture is the meaning here. People who choose it usually talk about dancing through something difficult, which is a very different reading from fatalism.

Placement: outer arm or upper shoulder, where a vertical figure has room. Size: 3 by 4 inch (7.5 by 10 cm). Style: loose brushwork blackwork. Pain: low, and brushwork goes quickly. The weakest part is the figure’s extremities, which blur into the skin fastest, so ask for solid hands and feet rather than suggested ones. Make it yours: describe the posture of someone you know, a specific lean or a raised arm.

13. Watercolor Rose with the Phrase on the Collarbone

A soft rose that looks like it bled into the skin, in burgundy and a muted green, with the phrase in fine black script set well clear of the flower. The empty space between the two is what makes it readable. Overlap them and the type disappears into the wash within a couple of years.

Colour florals get picked for their softness, and the script keeps the literary half of the design from tipping into sentimental.

Placement: beneath one collarbone, horizontal, follows the bone and stays visible with a low neckline. Size: 5 by 2 inch (12.5 by 5 cm). Style: watercolor with fine line type. Pain: low, the collarbone is sensitive but shallow. Collarbone skin is thin and sun-exposed, so both the wash and the fine script will fade faster here than on a limb. Make it yours: pick the two colours from something you own rather than from a reference photo.

14. Open Book and Pressed Flower on the Forearm

An open book drawn in fine line, a blank left page, and a single pressed flower resting on the right one, with the phrase written on the page underneath it. The book is generic on purpose. Nobody reproduces a specific cover or a specific object from the novel, which is how you keep it legal and keep it yours.

It’s a still life about things kept, which suits readers who underline their books more than they finish them.

Placement: inner forearm, horizontal, matches the shape of an open book. Size: 4 by 3 inch (10 by 7.5 cm). Style: fine line illustration. Pain: medium, and the page lettering needs a steady hand and a slightly heavier line. The page edges are the first detail to soften, so the artist should build them with two lines rather than one. Make it yours: have the flower be the one you kept from a specific book, described in enough detail to sketch.

15. Blackwork Hand Releasing a Feather

An open hand, palm out, letting a single feather go, with the phrase set underneath in small type. Dense black shading across the palm and fingers gives it weight, and the feather stays fine and detailed by contrast. The image is about release and impermanence, which is the one idea the phrase carries for nearly everyone who gets it.

It is the boldest design in this list and the one that reads from across a room, so it suits people who did not want a subtle tattoo.

Placement: outer forearm, centred, or the inner upper arm if you want the palm facing you. Size: 5 by 4 inch (12.5 by 10 cm). Style: bold blackwork with fine detail. Pain: medium to high, because the forearm has a lot of surface and the shaded areas take time. Solid black is the most durable ink there is, so this ages better than the fine line options. Make it yours: have the feather be a real one, described from a keepsake, with its own barbs drawn in.

16. Tiny Comet Tailing the Words ‘So It Goes’

The phrase set on a slight diagonal with a small comet leaving the end of it, tail trailing back. One gold accent in the head keeps it from being two pieces of information and one idea. It is the smallest design here that still reads as something rather than just lettering.

Movement is the theme, and it works for anyone who treats the phrase as momentum rather than as an ending. A wearer with existing small wrist work often extends it into a line of pieces.

Placement: inner or outer wrist, set diagonally so the tail follows the curve of the arm. Size: 2.5 by 1 inch (6.5 by 2.5 cm). Style: fine line with a single colour accent. Pain: low, and a compact design means a short sitting. Gold tends to stay warmer than the black around it over time, so the comet will separate visually as the piece ages. Make it yours: have the tail break into dots rather than a solid streak.

17. Miniature Matchbook Phrase on the Side of the Rib

An unbranded matchbook, cover printed with the phrase, and one loose match resting against it. Leaving the publisher off keeps it an original object. It’s a tactile little thing rather than a symbol, and it photographs well because the rectangle holds its shape.

Small literary objects tend to be chosen as private jokes between readers, which is exactly how this one gets explained, or not explained, in public.

Placement: side of the rib, on the gap between two ribs, angled with the body. Size: 2 by 2 inch (5 by 5 cm). Style: illustrative linework. Pain: high, the rib area is the most sensitive common placement and thin skin sits over bone. A 2 inch square here can take the best part of a session. Cover the lettering on the matchbook face with a bolder type than feels necessary. Make it yours: make the number of matches on the loose one match a number that means something to you.

18. Black Cat and ‘So It Goes’ in the Old Western Style

A traditional black cat, sitting, tail curled around its paws, drawn in bold old western line work with even spacing and flat black, plus a small banner carrying the phrase. The banner should be separate from the cat so the cat stays the subject. Keep the style aged rather than sleek.

Black cats have their own meanings, luck and protection mostly, and this one adds a line about acceptance on the back of it. Traditional styles are forgiving, because heavy outlines refade cleanly.

Placement: outer calf or the flat of the upper arm, both handle a square traditional piece well. Size: 4 by 4 inch (10 by 10 cm). Style: old western traditional. Pain: medium, the shading fills take time. Traditional line work holds up better than fine line, but the fill in the cat’s body will lighten and the outline will soften at the edges. Make it yours: colour the one visible eye in a colour with a reason behind it, and leave the rest black.

19. Stained-Glass Rose on the Shoulder

A rose built from geometric panes, each one a flat block of deep red, blue or gold, with heavy black leading between them. The phrase goes in a small clean line underneath, outside the circle, so the geometry stays readable. The leading is what makes it look like glass rather than a paint splodge.

This is the one to pick if colour is the reason you want a tattoo at all, and it reads as a window rather than a flower, which suits the phrase as a view out.

Placement: shoulder cap, centred over the deltoid, is the flattest large area most people have. Size: 6 by 6 inch (15 by 15 cm). Style: colour realism with a graphic outline. Pain: medium to high, and colour work across a solid fill takes two sessions more often than not. Heavy black leading is the most durable element, while the flat colour blocks need a refresh sooner, especially on a shoulder in the sun. Make it yours: use three colours drawn from somewhere specific, and keep the leading the same weight in every pane.

20. Fade-Away Figure with ‘So It Goes’ on the Shin

A standing figure drawn in fine line from the feet up, and then the top third of the body breaking apart into scattered dots that thin out into nothing, with the phrase beneath. The disappearing head is the whole point. It reads as the same acceptance the phrase does, but shown instead of written.

It suits people who like the idea but not lettering, and it anchors a vertical space better than almost anything else. Long vertical pieces also age as a composition rather than as separate details.

Placement: shin or inner forearm, vertical, is where the fade reads clearly. Size: 3 by 7 inch (7.5 by 18 cm). Style: fine line with dotwork dissolve. Pain: low to medium, and the dots need patience rather than depth. The lower half holds up well; the dissolving dots above are the part that softens first, which is the effect anyway. Make it yours: set the number of dots to match a number you keep coming back to.

How to Choose the Right Design

Check the wording, spacing and size before anything else

Have the artist stencil the words at the real size and hold them against the skin before any ink goes in. Lettering errors are the one tattoo mistake that cannot be quietly absorbed, and the fix costs far more than the original piece. A word tattoo in a serif or a print weight holds up better than a hairline script, and a two-word phrase is short enough to survive at a small size.

Match the style to the body area

Flat areas take detail. Wrists, ribs and fingers are the difficult ones. Fine line works on a forearm or a calf and struggles on the inside of a wrist, and a geometric piece like the staircase needs an area big enough to hold the whole shape without shrinking it into mush. If you are still weighing two options, our guide to fingerprint tattoo ideas for a memorial is a good test of the same thing: choose the design that suits the flat skin you have.

Set the detail level to the size you are getting

This is where most so it goes tattoo ideas go wrong, and it is a drawing problem rather than a meaning problem. A clock face at two inches has no room for numerals, a key cap at half an inch has no room for a letter, and a book page at four inches will not hold a paragraph. Decide the size first, then simplify until the design still reads at that size, and ask the artist to hold the reference at arm’s length before inking.

Look at healed work, not fresh work

Most portfolios are full of tattoos that were photographed the same week they were finished. Ask to see pieces at two years and at five. Fine line is where the difference shows worst, and an artist who will happily show you softened, slightly grey healed work is an artist who plans for the next decade rather than the next week.

Be honest about the personal connection

Quote tattoos are the category people regret most often, and the reason is nearly always that the words belonged to a mood rather than to the person. If the phrase means something structural to you, a stranger at a bus stop will not know, and that is fine. If it is decoration, one of the object designs here will probably serve you better than the words alone.

Cost and Session Time

What small literary pieces usually involve

Micro work such as a single word or a small symbol is often priced at the shop minimum, which many studios set to cover a short sitting regardless of size. A small two-word script, an umbrella or a comet is a similar job. Anything that adds an object, a plant, a figure or a clock turns into a small illustration and moves into a longer session, sometimes split across two visits. A stained-glass rose is a different category again, and colour fills across that area commonly need more than one sitting.

Rates vary by city, by the artist’s experience and by how much open space your design needs. A quiet weekday hour is often easier to book than a Saturday, and a consultation is normally the cheapest way to find out whether your idea is workable at the size you want.

Time in the chair

A compact design usually takes about 30 to 90 minutes. Detailed colour work on a shoulder or a thigh runs considerably longer, and a session will be capped by what the artist and the skin can take in one sitting. Factor in the healing window too. If you are planning a season ahead, allow four to six weeks before the piece is fully settled and before you judge how the colour or the line weight actually looks.

Aftercare Basics

Follow your artist’s aftercare instructions first, since they will know what they put in your skin and how long the ink needs to stay put. Beyond that, the basics are simple and the list is short.

• Wash the area gently with clean water and a mild unscented soap, then pat it dry rather than rubbing it.
• Wear loose clothing over the tattoo for the first days, especially over a rib, calf or shoulder piece.
• Keep it out of direct sun while it heals, and keep it out of water, including pools and long showers, for as long as you were told.
• Let any scab or flaking skin do its job instead of picking at it. That is the stage people ruin most often.
• Look at the healed result calmly after a few weeks, not after three days. Fresh ink always looks darker and sharper than the finished tattoo.

Frequently Asked Questions

For a first tattoo, keep it to one of the text-only options. The two-line wrist version or a single line of script on the inner forearm will be finished in a short sitting and will still look right in fifteen years, which is the part people care about most once the newness fades. If you are adding to an existing collection, one of the object designs here, the umbrella, the matchbook or the comet, gives you a small piece that reads as a chapter rather than a signature. Whichever you pick, get the wording checked on a stencil at full size before any ink goes in.