Meaning of tattoos?

Question

i want to know things like, a bird (swallow) means you have crossed the ocean, or along those lines

Answer 1

http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoos_designs_symbols_a.htm

It's even alphabetized. It took like 20 minutes to find the right words for the browser to find this, but I wanted to have it for myself too.

I just found this too :

(categories at bottom) http://www.arikah.net/encyclopedia/Tattoo#Tattoo-types

Answer 2

I have a tattoo meaning encylopedia (The Tattoo Encyclopedia : A Guide to Choosing Your Tattoo by Terisa Green), I don't know if there's an online version. It says some cool things like a cat tattoo means you're a thief, a tear below you're eye that you've killed someone etc. There are plenty of books like this around.

Answer 3

My husband says that as a sailor if you have a pig tattoo on one foot and a chicken tattoo on another foot you will never drown because they are two animals that don't go in the water. There are lots of other tattoos that sailors get with historical meaning. Some have "hold fast" with one letter on each of their fingers so that they will never drop a line when working on the boat raising sails or whatever.

Answer 4

That's cool, I never heard that about the bird; any tattoo place can tell you if there are specific meanings recognized by other people into tats;
Obviously the Chinese symbols say what they say in their language;
But then again any tat can mean whatever YOU want it too, right!

Answer 5

I dont know abt any of these contemporary tattoos. But in my mum's tribe, the Iban, the old guys normally have this big tribal spiral flowers on their back which indicate the amount of heads they collected during the head hunting era. Each flower represent one enemy's head.

But, most of the youngsters nowadays, have the same tattoo for other symbolic meanings..

Answer 6

I never heard that either, but if that is what you want it to mean..then go for it. To me a bird with open wings pointing up signifies "Freedom", a bird setting on a barbed wire is doing or done time, a black crow has something to do with death. There are many different meanings.

Answer 7

I have 6 tattoos each holds a differnt meaning I have a dolphin with banners and the names of my kids in each one I have an angel with a banner in honor of my daughter that died ect ect each person who has a tattoo with give a different meaning.

Answer 8

Well there are tons of tattoos all with different meanings depending on who you ask - try putting whatever tattoo you are looking for in a search engine....

Answer 9

Man there was a show I saw on tv that talked about different meanings of tattoos. And do you think I can remember what it was? Noooo! It was on one of those discovery..a&e channels. But there was one they mentioned that pretty much ment you were dead or da prison b*tch I can't remember which, but I don't remember what that tat was either. Sorry. :)

Answer 10

Depends on the picture and what color you use. I've never heard that about the swallow though. I heard that it is used in memory of deceased loved one.