Skull Tattoo Designs - Death or Immortality?

Posted on February 27, 2010
Filed Under Tattoo Designs, Tattoo Meanings | Leave a Comment

Skull Tattoo Designs - Death or Immortality? Alongside with positive and sunny tattoos of flowers and butterflies there are such tattoos that arouse mixed feelings as their meaning is somehow connected with death, danger and fragility of human life.

Skull tattoo designs belong to this group, but with some restrictions. The thing is that a skull as a symbol has almost lost its power and its negative meaning due to its frequent usage in modern mass culture. Earlier the skull and crossbones was a typical pirate design and stood for death and poison and evoked fear immediately on seeing it.

Skull tattoo designs were also popular among gamblers whose life was usually covered by spirit of danger and extreme. They believed that skull tattoo could bring them luck. For gamblers it usually included a black cat or a dice.

Skull Tattoo Designs - Death or Immortality?

Skull and bones can symbolize not only death but immortality as they last longer than our bodies. Archeologists now find well-preserved skulls of people who lived many centuries ago. If you want to stress this symbolism of immortality you can add a snake to your skull tattoo. A shake that goes from an empty eye socket stands for a chthonic god of immortality, as well as knowledge. This symbolic depiction is well-known and tells us that knowledge remains after death.

However, a skull tattoo is a pretty frightening one if properly done and can intimidate people around. It can send a message like “you’d better stay away from me”.

The most common design for a skull tattoo is skull and crossbones. It may be combined with a candle or a rose or other death and pirate symbols, ribbons, daggers, etc. It can be colored or black and white and occupy any part of your body, with shoulders being most frequently chosen for this kind of tattoo. When choosing a place for your skull tattoo make sure that it can be hidden if wanted, at work, for instance.

Share This

The World of Tribals - Maori Tattoo Patterns

Posted on February 24, 2010
Filed Under Before You Decide, Tattoo Designs | 1 Comment

The World of Tribals - Maori Tattoo Patterns Tribal tattoos on shoulders and backs of present-day people is a way the past penetrates the present. Nearly all ancient folks used tattoos to identify themselves or as a part of some ritual. Nowadays the tradition remains, moreover, we sometimes use the same patterns, but the purpose is different.

Maori is an ancient tribe that lived in Polynesia and New Zealand. They did a lot of tattooing and it was not mere adornment of their bodies, but a sacred art. While in modern tattoo salons everything is still and quiet, a tattoo session meant music, dancing and singing for Maori people. Tattoos were like a calendar on a human body, as Maoris marked the most important events of their life starting from initiation by getting a tattoo.

Wearing tattoos showed also status of people, as well as their belonging to a family, a clan and a tribe. It was very important as there was a great tribal diversity in New Zealand at that time and everybody wished to have its own sign. That’s why there were strict rules how to make tattoos.

So there were two common patterns of Maori tattoos: either pigmented lines or non-pigmented lines on a colored surface. The lines were usually curved and many of them formed spirals and repeated motifs as Maoris believed in the circular nature of the world.

The World of Tribals - Maori Tattoo Patterns

Mostly tattooed body parts were faces, buttocks and legs for men and lips and chin for women. Sometimes neck and back areas were tattooed. Maori tattoos were not only to be done according to general rules but also to repeat the “geography of the body,” so they were truly unique works of art.

There were no needles at that time, so Maori tattoos were done with knives and chisels made usually from albatross bone. Burnt wood or caterpillars were used as ink. Now, when Maori tattoos face revival, even that old equipment was brought back to life.

Maori-inspired tattoo designs form a significant part of tribal tattoos, black-and-white, mysterious and intricate.

Share This

Tattoo Aftercare Tips

Posted on February 23, 2010
Filed Under Tattoo Care | Leave a Comment

Tattoo Aftercare Tips To get a tattoo means not only no endure all pain the process causes but also to take proper care after it, especially during several first days after the procedure. This time is a most dangerous as you may catch an infection as your skin has not yet been healed.

Proper tattoo aftercare ensures that your tattoo will remain an excellent piece of art for a lifetime, will stay as beautiful and vivid as the time you did it. Tattoo artists do their best to protect you during the tattooing session and then let you go with a bandage on your tattoo, which keeps bacteria away. Then it is your turn.

Specialists advise you to keep the bandage for 4-6 hours after you have left a tattoo salon, and it is even better not to remove it until next morning. There’s also a possibility to get a transparent tape instead of bandage for those who can’t wait to show off their tattoo, but nothing will help quicker healing than a bandage.

When it is time to remove your bandage, do it with your hands clean, and don’t put a new bandage on. Wash your tattoo with soap and then use a fresh paper towel to dry it. Let it breathe until it is completely dry and apply some oil your tattoo artist has advised you, and continue doing it for some days later. But never use alcohol or Vaseline jelly. Try to do everything softly and in a gentle manner not to damage your tattoo.

Avoid direct sun exposure of your tattoo, wear loose clothes (for instance if you got a shoulder tattoo make sure that your shirt doesn’t scrub it), be careful in shower and take general care after your skin. Your skin is a canvas for your tattoo.

After 3 or 6 days the top layer of dead skin will come off and your tattoo will start to peel. It’s a normal process, and afterwards your tattoo will be seen well as ink doesn’t by any means disappear from your skin.

You should be ready to identify infection, which signs are highly visible inflammation, excessive scabbing, rash and other skin troubles. It this happens, you’d better consult your tattoo artists for doctors may not know about tattoo aftercare, though they are good experts in their field.

Share This

Kanji Tattoo Designs - Made in Japan

Posted on February 21, 2010
Filed Under Before You Decide, Tattoo Designs | Leave a Comment

Kanji Tattoo Designs - Made in Japan On of the possibilities of tattoo lettering is adorning your body with symbols of exotic alphabets like Japanese or Chinese. They are of great attraction to western people as the unknown always draws public attention. Indeed, various tattoo letterings with hieroglyphs can make a perfect tattoo.

Kanji tattoo designs are basically Japanese ideograms, with one character representing a whole object or idea. This is the most essential difference of ideographic alphabets from English and the majority of the world languages where each letter stands for a sound and virtually means nothing when used alone.

Kanji ideograms make only a part of Japanese writing system alongside with the katakana and hiragana “alphabets.” Katakana is the most familiar to westerners while kanji is the oldest among them and originated in 4 century AD when the Japanese borrowed pictograms from the Chinese and reconfigured them.

Kanji tattoo patterns are numerous; about 3500 characters are known to a well-educated Japanese person. The only thing you should remember is that you should know for sure what this or that symbol means, so consult special sites dealing with interpreting of kanji symbols before you get a tattoo.

The symbols are also read, they stand for syllables, so you can render your name in kanji. For name Melissa, for instance, you’ll need three symbols, one for each syllable. Moreover, as kanji symbols have several meanings as a rule, one and the same symbol can convey very different meanings. This gives you a possibility to choose that ones that are closer to your preferences and worldview. The combination of them will have a unique meaning, so you not simply write your name in kanji but also supply it with a concept.

Kanji tattoo designs are not all about names. Symbols may be depicted in connection with some picture, or just alone to represent what they are designed to. There are also haiku tattoos done in kanji symbols. A haiku is a poem from several lines that captures the moment as it is and implies some philosophical thought.

Many people who resort to kanji tattoos choose them just for their appealing nature. It’s an interesting fact but actually Japanese, as well as Chinese, see nothing special in this tattoo style and it’s almost unknown in Japan.

Share This