Inscriptions are different. They are a way to put arbitrary data into the Blockchain.
Discussion
I don't understand these as well. But as far as I know they do this by putting unreachable code into the script. And since it's in the witness it's 4x cheaper than normal txns.
Isn't one just pictures & the other more arbitrary? It's all just recorded spam.
Inscriptions "inscribe" data onto satoshis. Ordinals is an addressing scheme to reference the specific Satoshi. They work hand in hand.
* I am no expert. This is just what I've learned doing a quick investigation.
Pretty sure there is nothing ever actually tied to any satoshi. It doesn't move around with them as far as I know.