Monthly Archives: May 2010

swallow and nautical stars

The swallow, like the bluebird, is a symbol of hope. As a nautical tattoo design, the swallow has been sometimes mistaken within popular culture for the bluebird, and the two very different species of birds – the Barn Swallow and eastern Bluebird, to be exact – have quite similar colouring, with bright accents of blue and and orange, verging to both red and yellow.

In ancient times, the swallow was associated with the ‘imperishable’ stars and the souls of the dead. According to Greek legend, secret texts told how to transform into a swallow, something the ancient deities liked to do. It was also a totem bird for sorrowing mothers who had lost a child. To kill a swallow was very unlucky, as the swallow carried the souls of children who had died. An ancient Egyptian artwork depicts a swallow on the prow of a barque as it enters the Underworld.

The nautical star is a very old modern tattoo, going back at least a century or more. Back in the days of yore, before modern navigation, sailors would navigate in part by the stars in the night skies, in particular the North Star in the Northern Hemisphere, and various other constellations of stars in the night sky. In the Southern Hemisphere, sailors had to use different stars and the Southern Cross became quite well-known. Sailors would then tattoo nautical stars on them because they relied on the stars to take them home, and being superstitious, they hoped their star tattoos would get them home safely as well.

sacred heart of jesus tattoo

The image of Jesus as a tattoo design is the most “Christian” of all religious tattoos. Jesus is often depicted hanging on the cross. As well many times the tattoo is a close up of his face with a halo (or faint glow) over him and a crown of thorns placed upon his head during the crucifixion.

custom tribal design

french family gets a custom tribal design done in morbid tattoo parlor in cash and carry mall makati manila

kanji tattoo

Literacy began in Japan in the 4th century AD, when they borrowed pictograms from the Chinese and the Koreans, a system of characters called ‘hanzi’. The Japanese called them kanji, meaning ‘han characters’, and they survive to this day as part of the Japanese writing system.

Although the Japanese adopted the Chinese characters, the Chinese language was entirely alien to them. In fact, Chinese and Japanese are from entirely different linguistic families. The Japanese were forced to creatively reconfigure the characters to fit their own tongue. They used them sometimes as ideograms to convey an object or idea, and sometimes they used them phonetically. Japanese grew to include of two more ‘alphabets’ called katakana and hiragana, each with their own function. Reading Japanese, therefore, requires the ability to negotiate between three distinct writing systems.

custom butterfly tattoo

One of the most popular tattoo design choices for women, the Butterfly reveals the feminine influence in tattoo culture. Generally speaking, butterflies are an overwhelmingly female tattoo design. Because of the butterfly’s short life span, many ancient peoples saw it as emblematic of the impermanent. It’s physical beauty and its fluttering from flower to flower seeking nectar have made it synonymous with the more unstable and superficial aspects of the human soul.