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 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.
Skull Tattoo Designs – Death or Immortality? is a post from: Tattoo designs and ideas by Tattooique
