Laser-induced damage morphology using nanosecond laser pulses on sapphire surfaces is reported. The temperature variation of sapphire inclusion (Cu) under different laser fluence irradiations is analyzed, and the temperature variation of inclusion′s dimension radius is simulated by finite element method. The laser-induced damage experiment of two sapphires with different sizes are investigated by 6 ns pulse width, 1064 nm laser. At the same time, the sapphire laser-induced damage threshold, damage position distribution, influence of different laser fluences on the damage area and damage growth characteristics are analyzed. Results show that the inclusion absorption mechanisms can preferably explain the sapphire damage under the nanosecond laser pulse irradiation, and simulation results are in agreement with the experimental results. In addition, with the 1-on-1 irradiation, sapphire surface damage area gets larger with the increase of laser fluence linearly, while with the s-on-1 irradiation, the damage area on the back surface exponentialy grows with laser shot number.