Battle of the Ink: Which Country Singer Has the Best (or Worst) Tattoos?

According to the stats, 45 million Americans have tattoos and the ink industry is alive and well, raking in an estimated $1.65 billion a year. Musicians have represented the tattoo lifestyle for decades and country singers today sport some serious ink. The question is, who has the best tattoos? Who's are the worst?

Aaron Tippin

The stats tell us that 43% of people with ink think a tattoo with a personal meaning is the most important factor. Aaron Tippin is one of those 43 percenters. His tat, a palmetto tree with a crescent moon over it, is straight from the South Carolina state flag. Raised in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, his ink is a tribute to the state he considers to be home. He once talked about it with Great American Country, saying that with his tribute, "I wouldn’t be scared to go to church with my sleeves rolled up. I know I’ll never be ashamed of being from South Carolina."

Blake Shelton

Blake is another one who's ink has personal meaning in a big way. The singer spends as much time as he can out in nature, hunting so when he decided to take the plunge, he wanted his tat to represent that part of his life. He drew a trail of deer tracks to circle around his left forearm and sat in the chair while a tattoo artist made them permanent. The problem was that most people didn't recognize them to be deer tracks at all. The Boot reported that his ink got a very girlified repsonse. "To this moment, people still come up to me and say, ‘Man, ladybugs … that’s cool. What does that mean to you?’" Even after he went back and had barbed wire bands inked around the tracks to make the whole piece more manly, he still isn't a huge fan. He said, "I probably have the crappiest tattoo — not only in country music — but maybe the world."

Brantley Gilbert

Brantley Gilbert is a "go big or stay home" kind of guy. Not one to get a single tat, his entire left arm is covered in a sleeve that tells a story of what he calls "Heaven and Hell." The top Heaven section was done on camera by Tommy Montoya at Wooster Street Social Club, during a taping of the TLC show, NY Ink (watch). He shared the story of the hell he put himself and his family through when he was in a near fatal wreck. While BG didn't specify the what behind the Heaven scene, it has to be what he's found now in his life and the balance to who he was.

Carrie Underwood

Carrie can pull off the good girl look ("Jesus Take the Wheel") or the bad girl vibe ("Something Bad" with Miranda Lambert) with equal ease. But regardless of which look she's rockin', the mom to be's ink is always hidden. The all-American beauty sports two small tattoos - one is a four-leaf clover and the other one's a black cat. In an interview with Redbook, she didn't say where they were, but photos of her found on the internet in a bikini show the clover being in her right hip area and the cat is on the left side of her lower back. "I was in college and got them done," she explained. "They don't mean anything."