As a musical instrument the guitar has a history which goes back nearly three thousand years. Guitars come in two varieties, the first of which is the acoustical guitar having a flat-backed rounded body that narrows in the middle, a long fretted neck, and usually six strings, played by strumming or plucking. The body of an acoustic guitar is hollow and the sound is produced by the reverberations of sound produced when the strings vibrate.

An electric guitar usually has a solid body with a device known as a pickup – a magnet surrounded by wire – which picks up the vibrations of the guitar strings and sends them to an amplifier which is then sent to the speakers where they are converted into sound.

A Guitar tattoo design is a favorite of musicians, with designs of electrical guitars far out-numbering their acoustical brethren. Electric guitars tend to be more popular with rock musicians, acoustic guitars with Country & Western music enthusiasts and classical musicians, and lovers of Folk Music and Flamenco.

Similar in nature but with very different sounds, are musical instruments like the lute and the banjo. These instruments speak to the long and romantic history of troubadours and musicians, who often lived a nomadic existence traveling between country and market fairs all over the world when not performing in the courts of the nobility or the taverns and meeting places of the local people.

In times without literature, or places without books and an educated audience, musicians had a rich repertoire of songs and stories that told the histories of their peoples and cultures. A musician’s life has never been an easy one, but it has long symbolized freedom and a love of music, poetry and the romance and adventure of the open road. Custom black and gray guitar tattoo design, done in morbid tattoo parlor in cash and carry mall Makati Manila, Philippines.