Butterfly Tattoo Designs

The butterfly tattoo is by far the most used artistic subject matter of all insects, especially in the tattoo industry. Butterflies became a fad years ago by being the theme of many pieces of jewelry, t-shirts, scarves, paintings, and tattoos. Artists have a real freedom of creativity when they are creating butterfly tattoos because the designs are not rigid. They can be changed in color, size, shape, and other details without looking distorted.

The butterfly has many different meanings. In our society, its symbol has been commonly known as freedom, change, and growth. A generally feminine tattoo design choice and a perennial favorite.

Celtic Tattoo Designs

Celtic tattoo designs are primarily a genre of complex interwoven lines representing knots, mazes, spirals and other figures. Celtic animal figures are zoomorphic or stylized renderings of animals that were used for carvings, in jewelry and wood, stonework and manuscript illustrations. Many images used by tattoo artists today are derived from the famous Irish Book of Kells.

The famous Book of Kells is an ornately illustrated manuscript, produced by Irish Monks around AD 800. It is one of the most lavishly illuminated manuscripts to survive from that period. The name "Book of Kells" is derived from the Abbey of Kells, located in Kells, County Meath in Ireland, where it was kept for much of the medieval period.

There are strong Norse design influences in Celtic knot work, and there is some debate as to the exact origin. Clearly there were exchanges between cultures through both trade and conquest. The complexity of Celtic design is thought to mimic or echo the complexity of nature, the use of Celtic knots in spirals and mazes, the intricate interweaving showing no beginning and no end, reflective of the cycles of the seasons and of life.

Dragon tattoo designs

Dragon tattoo designs The dragon is definitely hands down one of the most beautiful and powerful of all the mythic beasts. The sheer beauty and power of these mythical beasts alone warrant there attention as tattoo designs. Then being combined with a long and rich history of tattooing as an art form such as in the Japanese culture and you have a winning combination.

Typically dragon tattoo are not seen as the cunning and evil creature that they are represented as in Western culture. Instead in most Asian cultures Dragons do not breathe fire typically and are seen as more benevolent creatures. They are seen as very powerful and are definitely a symbol of strength and power. However, they also represent a perfect balance of yin and yang forces and are therefore believed to represent a reconciliation of balancing of power. They therefore more typically represent a combination of power with wisdom.