Teddy bear tattoos are popular designs reminding grown-up ink lovers of their childhood. For most, the fluffy bear offers unconditional love, a calming influence, security, and companionship. Teddy bear body art is very much a modern ink phenomenon, although grizzlies and black bears have a long history in American traditional tattooing. Contemporary teddy bear tattoos build on old school linework,...
In Western tattoo culture, the snake symbolizes betrayal, suspicion, and mistrust. Snake tattoo design also provides elements of duality when combined with other more positive associations, such as the heart, rose, or even a skull. In Japanese and pre-Christian cultures, the snake lacks the ties with evil and temptation that many in the US or other western cultures have grown...
Mickey Mouse is the most recognizable symbol of Disney, the animation and cartoon company that has been keeping kids entranced since 1928. The lovable mouse is a hugely popular and influential tattoo motif, in all sorts of innovative ways. Mickey serves as the Disney company’s mascot. Mickey tattoos are symbolic of people’s affinity for Disney but also represent a link...
The arrow is a symbolic tattoo choice, such as a protective solitary shaft, or pair of arrows that may delineate war, peace, or friendship depending on the way you ascribe it. Single arrow tattoos, doubles, triples, whole quiver ink, or imagery accompanying them can change the meaning based on angle, direction, body placement, or whether they’ve been etched alongside a...
Garter tattoos are designs made to represent femininity and sexiness, but with the added subtlety incorporating women’s strength and individuality also wrapped into the idea. While many collectors sport the lingerie version to create a current of sensuality into their thigh tattoo, others combine design choices to enhance factors such as strength and resourcefulness. Garters are traditionally incorporated into a...
The rose is an almost universal symbol for true love in tattoo design - it's one of the most enduring and highly visible motifs in body art. According to Aitken-Smith’s Tattoo Dictionary, rose flower tattoo meaning further incorporates “symbolic interpretation of transformation, mysticism, and illumination.” Not only is the rose popular as a standalone design - either as a small...
Tattoo cultures worldwide associate the mighty dragon with mystical power representing freedom, balance, wisdom and good fortune, although in the West dragons are fire breathing monsters. The dragon is an enduring phenomenon in traditional body art design and tattoos illustrating the modern pop culture of film, television, and video games, with distinctly different character traits and symbolic meaning tied to...
“A semicolon is used when an author could’ve chosen to end their sentence but chose not to. The author is you, and the sentence is your life.” - Amy Bleuel The semicolon tattoo was popularized by Amy Bleuel, the founder of Project Semicolon who unfortunately lost her mental health battle in 2017 at the age of 31. The simple semicolon...
Succulent tattoos are some of the fastest growing plant and flower designs and are often linked to the concept of enduring love. At one stage there were only cactus tattoos, but the popularity and higher visibility of hardy succulents for plant growers and ink collectors means these plants are a worthy subject for cool ink. Succulents are primarily known for...
Alongside the words “smile now, cry later,” the smiling and weeping pair of theater masks are common design examples of the quintessentially Chicano tattoo. When Freddy Negrete first inked a “smile now, cry later” tattoo dedicated to the hard faces Mexican Americans had to wear in difficult circumstances, it is doubtful he knew how profound the impact would be. Smile...
