A device for tattooing an animal such as a rodent includes a tweezers-shaped body having resilient arms with free ends, which can be squeezed together and when released will return to a spaced apart, rest position. A needle carried by the free end of one arm is aligned with a hole in the free end of the other arm, so that when an area of animal, e.g. a rodent toe, is placed between the fee ends and the arms are pressed together, the needle penetrates the animal to deposit ink beneath the skin of the animal.
