The HTC Tattoo wants to redefine smart in smartphone. This affordable little thing was among the first droids to go mass-market. But run-of-the-mill specs don’t mean a boring personality. The HTC Tattoo wears its heart on the sleeve and a shirt for every day of the week means no shortage of sleeves. What do you know, HTC are busy running a tattoo shop.

The Android Market is a huge part of the deal with every droid phone. The HTC Tattoo has two: a beauty shop and a food store to go to. Back at launch, the QVGA screen resolution wouldn’t let the Tattoo make the best of the Android Market. Things should be different a few months later with more QVGA droids around.

The back side hosts the 3.2-megapixel camera that we don’t expect much of. There is a picture of the iconic green robot next to it, but as you probably know, HTC has recently started a dedicated service that allows HTC Tattoo owner hopefuls to unleash their creative thinking and come up with their unique designs. Cool! Still… keep in mind the indisputable pleasure of personalizing the appearance of your future handset will set you back with extra 15 EUR.

The HTC Tattoo is a nicely built handset and feels very sturdy indeed, with no creaks or squeaks from its covers. The front of the handset features a 2.8-inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) resolution resistive touchscreen display, with an earpiece and notification LED above it, and most of the device’s hardware buttons beneath it. These hardware buttons comprise a home key, menu key, back key, search key, and call send and end keys. The Tattoo is also the first HTC Android device in the UK to come without a trackball, instead featuring a 5-way d-pad. Personally, although I like the trackball, I think the d-pad actually makes the handset easier to use in some ways.

The rear of the handset is very rounded at its edges, which gives the Tattoo a pleasant feel in the hand. Top left of the rear cover is the camera lens, next to the centrally-positioned loudspeaker grille. The texture of the front and rear covers feels odd, but in a good way. The surface is smooth, with an almost soft-touch feel. The right edge of the handset is bare, and the left is home only to the volume rocker. The top of the handset features the Tattoo’s 3.5mm headphone port and a lanyard fixing. The bottom features just HTC’s miniUSB port for charging and data, and a microphone pinhole.