Archive for best tattoo designs
Popular Arm Tattoo Designs
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The arm has long been the most popular body part for tattoo fanatics. Not only is it clearly visible (making it easier to show off), but it is also aesthetically very pleasing! Not only that, the arm provides enough space for the more intricate tattoo designs and since the arm contains more muscle mass when compared to any other part of the body, it makes the tattoo process far less painful!
Tattoos on the arm have their drawbacks too. Due to their ready exposure to the sun they are prone to fade (or become dull) faster when compared to designs on other parts of the body that are not exposed to the sun as much. But that really hasn’t stopped anyone I know from getting their arms tattooed!
Although arm tattoos are popular among both the sexes, it seems to be the most preferred body part especially among men. Tattoo sleeves (full arm, half arm or quarter arm) are becoming increasingly popular among men. Even women, most of who prefer smaller, simpler designs have begun to take a liking to these sleeve designs. Tattoo sleeves are nothing but a group of similarly themed tattoos (sometimes even one large design) that covers the entire arm from shoulder to wrist.
Tattoos have had a vast historical presence. Throughout our history tattoos have been associated with social and religious rites for which several of our ancient tribes stand as testimony, but as time progressed they were relegated to merely permanently marking people. As people started using them to mark the outlaws of their civilization the practice slowly began to be associated with criminality and immorality. And for this our modern society stands as testimony. Up until a few decades ago tattoos were a tabooed subject in our communities. In fact some countries still prohibit public display of one’s tattoos.
These public biases are slowly changing and tattoos once again being appreciated as an art form. Tattoos nowadays don’t have the same religious significance it used to have. People are now get inked as a way of expressing their true self and for aesthetic purposes.
Some of the most popular designs for the arm include Tribal designs, Celtic knot designs, Cross designs, Japanese or Chinese designs and symbols, Japanese or Chinese Kanji characters, barbed wire, fire, zodiac symbol designs and dragon tattoos. A majority of women seem to prefer the more delicate or feminine tattoo designs such as flower designs, fairy tattoos, star designs and butterfly designs.
Japanese Full Body Tattoos
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Body art has been a part of our history for well over two thousand years! Body art doesn’t constitute just tribal face painting, but it also includes the more complex process of permanent tattooing. Although tattoos were initially a vital part of a culture’s social and religious rites, they slowly took a back seat as time passed.
As Civilizations advanced, tattoos came to be used more for permanently making an individual (like outlaws and traitors) which was a manner of disgracing them in public. And thus tattoos slowly became associated with criminal behaviour and immoral living. Incidentally, Japan is one of the last countries to actually abolish the practice of disciplinary tattooing.
It is said that this tattooed clique later resorted to full body tattooing in an effort to hide their indignity. As a result, tattoo artists derived a wide range of attractive designs for the whole body. Over a period of time, these full body tattoos began attracting public attention and especially during the Tokugawa period.
The Tokugawa period (dated between 1603 and 1868) witnessed some of the strictest sumptuary laws and the people resorted to full body tattoos as a sign of rebellion. Even though the practice was severely condemned by the Japanese authorities, it continued to rise in popularity! Public display of one’s tattoos in Japan is prohibited by law even today.
The practice of full body tattooing in Japan is most commonly associated with the Yakuza – the Japanese mafia. The Yakuza is said to have formed as a result of the dissolution that the once greatly regulated society experienced. The practice is also said to have many influences – from the Samurai, the Bushido, the sinister side of the Tokugawa regime and even gambling! The higher classes of Japanese society, even today, consider the practice as a barbaric tradition.
For these reasons and many more (not to mention they cost a bomb and aren’t particularly pain free!) the practice is again on a downward spiral. The number of people learning the art has also sharply declined. By the looks of it, this spectacular body art will soon be an extinct art form.
Kanji Tattoos
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Kanji tattoos are nothing but tattoos of Japanese language characters and symbols. These ideographic tend to represent entire objects, ideas or expressions. The reason most people like these tattoos are because they can easily express complex thoughts with just a few characters, plus they are also visually very appealing.
Basically there are two types of characters that are used in the written Japanese language – Kana and Kanji. Kanji is the term used for Chinese characters that are used in the Japanese language. In fact, all written Japanese characters have evolved from written Chinese and over the years have come to include a few modified characters that represent some different sounds in the Japanese language.
Some of these characters may mean the same in both Japanese and Chinese languages but are usually pronounced differently. While some others characters, although written the same way, may mean completely different things. Some Kanji characters were developed fully in Japan and are often not seen in the Chinese language. And then there are those characters that are written with slight modifications but tend to have the same meaning. So basically you have a choice between the Japanese Kanji tattoos and the Chinese Kanji tattoos.
If you are contemplating a Kanji tattoo and you are not a native speaker of the language (which I’m guessing you’re not), the key thing to keep in mind is that Kanji is constructed very differently from the English language. Like I mentioned, these languages are not made up of individual letters but are made up of ideographs or pictographs (some characters consist of more than thirty strokes!)
When you don’t speak the language, you will find it very hard to say exactly what you want through those tattoos. Some problems people frequently encounter with these tattoos are with the meaning. There have been plenty of cases of literal translations which make absolutely no sense in the Japanese language. For instance, “girl power” can be easily written (??) to mean ‘sporty spices!’
Sometimes the artist (if not fluent in the language) may end up mixing up the Chinese and Japanese Kanji characters, again resulting in nonsense. There have been instances of the characters being rotated, written upside down, given mirror image versions, characters with missing brush strokes or some strokes even mistakenly joined resulting in exactly what you did not want! So before you get them on you permanently, be double sure they mean exactly what you think they do.
Sun Tattoo Designs
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The Sun has had a profound impact on almost every major civilization in our history. The sun was representative of life and its personified deity was worshipped by the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans and many, many more. The Sun was in fact the principal figure within the temples dedicated to all gods and deities.
Today, the Sun as a tattoo design is an indication of its deep symbolic nature in almost every culture around the world. One of the common symbols of the Sun is a circle with curvy lines stemming from the perimeter denoting the sun’s rays. Sometimes these designs come with a dot in the centre of the circle which is representative of the blending of the male and female forces.
Usually the Sun is perceived as a masculine symbol and the moon and the earth its feminine counterparts. Hence it is common for the Sun to be paired with the earth or the moon. For years people believed that the Sun was the centre of the universe and it came to be a symbol of both divine and royal powers. This idea was adopted by the ancient secular as well as religious authorities. 
Almost every major ancient culture has a myth about creation. It speaks of how the Sun came into being and these stories are often accompanied by the apocalyptic myths that prophesy the end of the world. They explain that the end will come when the Sun is destroyed (quite true if you ask me, I don’t see how mankind can go on living on earth if there were no Sun!) The rising and the setting of the sun, the cyclic light and darkness is also representative of life itself in most ancient cultures. The idea of regeneration or reincarnation takes root from these beliefs.
The Sun is also symbolic of passion, courage and eternally renewed youth; vitality, fertility, enlightenment and knowledge. The different ancient cultures in our history denoted the Sun in different ways. A winged Serpent (like a dragon), an eagle with a serpent, an eagle, a falcon (which also represented the Egyptian god Horus), a phoenix, a swan, a ram, a cock, a bull and a lion are all various representations of the Sun. Some cultures even used such symbols as a rose or a rosette, a lotus, a sunflower, a chrysanthemum (a perennial garden plant) and the heart symbol to depict the Sun.
Tattoo Designs for Women
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Although tattoos have been around since the dawn of human history, they slowly became a taboo is our civilization. They became associated with criminals and those considered morally degenerate; and for a lady, it was something unthinkable! However, all that has changed in the past 25 years or so, and more and more women are getting inked today.
Some of the most popular designs among women tend to be the smaller, delicate, so called “girly” designs. Women are generally smaller and more delicately built when compared to men (nothing gets by me!) and these delicate designs look great on them. Of course, all these are just generalizations and not rules.
Butterflies are some the most sought after designs among women. If you’re contemplating your very first tattoo – these are a good choice. A small or life sized butterfly design on the ankle or shoulder is a safe bet. The butterfly is often a symbol of grace, beauty and rebirth given its transformation into a beautiful creature from that of an ugly caterpillar.
A flower tattoo also makes a good first tattoo design. In addition to its feminine look it can mean a whole bunch depending on the kind of flower you choose. A rose, for instance, (being the most popular choice) stands for love when red. Pink roses symbolize grace and white roses are a symbol of purity or innocence.
Fairy tattoos are a recent development and tend to represent a way of thinking. These designs vary from the cute tinker bell kind of images to the fiercer looking images of fairies from the Celtic mythology. These designs are also growing in popularity in the ink world.
Star tattoos are those that can be worn by both men and women. They are a universal symbol, not particularly belonging to a culture or religion and can mean a lot of different things to different people. The most popular design is that of the shooting star – a star followed by a trail of smaller stars (or star dust.) This is a great design for those who want a bigger tattoo but would like it to remain subtle.
Zodiac tattoos otherwise known as astrological tattoos are a great way to personalize your tattoo, especially if you are one to consult your horoscope on a regular basis. I’m sure you know that different sun signs have different symbols and ever one of them can be created in a contemporary delicate style.
Some of the other popular designs for women include heart designs, dragonfly tattoos, dolphin tattoos and even tribal or Celtic designs.
Popular Tattoo Artist: Chuck Eldridge
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Popular tattoo artist Chuck Eldridge speaks of his dreams and inspirations that lead to his enormous feat in the tattoo world, in an interview with TFI. As with many artists of today, Chuck also had childhood dreams of one day being a tattoo artist.
He says: “childhood dreams are always a little bit more candy-coated. There was a program in our elementary school to keep us off the street, they would hold big parties and one of the booths they set up there was a tattoo booth. One of the high school students would come over with magic markers and draw up designs and paste them on the wall and then he would do “tattoos” – I used to get my arms just completely covered with these and I would get so many that the guy doing the drawings would say “I’m not doing any more on you because your mom is going to kick my ass.” — I think [the dream] measures up. I always saw myself with loads of tattoos on my arm so that came true.”
He goes on to talk about some of his early influences in the industry: “I went into the Navy and that threw me into San Diego for boot camp for ten or eleven weeks and there I did not know any names. This was in ’65. There were no names going around in my brain where I said ‘Oh my God I got to get a tattoo by him.’ In San Diego in ’65 that was the height of the Vietnam War so there were tons of tattooists. Basically I just started going in [shops] looking at designs on the wall and then getting in line to get tattooed.
The shops there would be lined up. All the way in the shop and sometimes out on the sidewalk in front of the shop. And in the shop were five tattooists tattooing as fast as they could. Only when you got into the business you started hearing some names and then you actually started looking for people and searching them out. The first one that I really traveled to get tattooed by was Cliff Raven; buy that was actually after the Navy.”
Chuck personally prefers the more traditional tattoos like that of Sailor Jerry – the early American and European designs but is famous for inking great designs of all genres.