Wolffish Tattoos: Ink Inspired by the Amazon’s Ferocious Trairão

Stuff we Like

Feb 28

There’s no two ways about it: wolffish — better known in Brazil as trairão — are downright ugly. But what they lack in looks, they make up for in attitude. These junkyard dogs of the Amazon smash lures with reckless violence, grow to serious sizes, and fight like they’ve got a grudge.

That’s why I headed to Brazil’s Rio Juruena with them at the top of my hit list. Sure, we tangled with payara, peacock bass, and a few other river oddballs, but the trairão more than lived up to its reputation.

While you won’t see many American anglers chasing them, or many tattoos of them back home, South American fishermen know the score — and plenty of them have immortalized old Wolfie in ink.

Pesca Express Wolffish leg tattoo — **Pesca Express**

Anatomically correct wolffish trairao tattoo arm — **Anderson De Gouza Silva**

black and white leaping trairao tattoo — **Leo Dallarosa Ink**

Skeleton hoplias tattoo — **TATTOO Tallinn | Valerija Kas**

lifelike wolf fish tattoo Brazil — **Apex Tattoo Parlour**

Tribal black and white trairao hoplias tattoo — **Rither Pêreira**

Tattoo of trairao fish getting grabbed by bird talons — **Thomaz Fernando Henckmaier**

Colorful Amazon wolffish tattoo — **Fabio Iamaguti**

Tattoo of trairao chasing hollow-bodied frog — **Leandro Sertori Teodoro**

Fierce wolffish wolf fish tattoo — **Tatuador Eduardo Lucas**

We expect to catch some smaller trairão on our trip to Argentina in December 2026, but we’re also due to make a trip to Brazil – south of Manaus, where the giants live. Shoot us an email if either of those destinations are on your bucket list.