Tattoo Styles Series – Tribal
When you combine the many kinds of tattoo styles, thousands of tattoo artists, and your own imagination, the possibilities are endless when it comes to choosing your next (or first!) piece of artwork. With so much to choose from, we thought it would be fun to do a series on the major types of tattoo styles in the US. We hope you enjoy!
A wide variety of indigineous cultural art falls under the umbrella of tribal tattoos. We’ll briefly cover a few of the major groups below and in the next segment of our series. There’s no doubt that this genre is currently one of the most popular styles in America, even though it has generally fallen out of fashion since it’s heyday in the early 90’s. Today, most tribal ink has ventured away from the original art’s meaning and has incorporated modern images and designs to create the aesthetic we are all familiar with: solid black lines and curves in a series of abstract designs. But, many people have started to do their homework to incorporate some of the more traditional artwork and its meaning into their own ink.
Celtic
Celtic Knot Drawing
Celtic art is easily distinguished by its knots, consisting of complicated twists, turns, and curves. Besides the ever-popular knot (symbolizing power, wisdom, and strength), you will see birds (symbolizing purity), crosses, trinity/triquerta symbols (a three-cornered, mostly feminine design referring to the spirit or the cosmos), fish (symbolizing introspection and brilliance), butterflies, quartenary knots (four-cornered knots that represent the four elements and can symbolize infinity if closed and journey when open), and triple spirals (symbolizing feminine powers).
Originally, designs were tattooed on Celtic warriors, but today the art has evolved to include designs for both men and women, Irish or not!
Polynesia
Polynesian Turtle Tattoo
Polynesian tattoo art covers a wide range of cultures in the Pacific islands. Popular styles include symbols from the Maori in New Zealand (covered in detail below), Samoa, and Borneo. Because much of their culture is shared, you will notice some similarities among designs. For example, both Maori and general Polynesian art share the tiki symbol. In Polynesian art, the tiki is a semi-god represented in a human form that symbolizes protection, and different parts of the tiki’s body can be highlighted to mean different things. Shells, especially turtle shells, are also very common in Polynesian design. Ocean depictions are often used to fill in spand represent wellness, peace, and fertility. The Marquesan cross is broadly used in tattoo design and symbolizes balance or harmony. Another popular symbol, the sun, is often combined with other designs to give specific meaning. In general, the sun stands for riches, brilliance, and leadership. Not surprisingly, the ocean figures prominently in Polynesian tattoo art, and because Polynesians see the ocean as where they go after death, the ocean is often a symbol of death or of the world beyond death. It can, however, also be used to depict life and fertility.
Shark teeth are another common symbol and represent shelter, guidance, power, and adaptability, while another creature, the lizard, very important in the Polynesian belief system, symbolizes the gods. Finally, spear heads are also found in almost every Polynesian tattoo design. They represent courage and can also symbolize warriors or the stings of animals. Typically, spear symbols are combined with other art to create certain meanings.
There are many other symbols, and, combined with the most popular ones listed above, the options are infinite. You can choose a design just based on looks, or you can do your research or consult an expert to choose a design most meaningful to you.
Maori
Maori Tattoo Art
Maori symbols were (and still are) very important to Maori culture, depicting this group of people’s beliefs about life, creation, history, and spirituality. Much like letters in an alphabet, symbols are combined in certain ways to depict specific meanings, making Maori tattoo art complex and unique.
The most popular symbols are the koru, twist, manaia, tiki, fish hook, and toki blade. The koru, or spiral, represents ancestry, genealogy, hope, and growth, and it is the symbolic representation of fern fronds found in New Zealand. The pikourua, or twist, represents life’s path and symbolizes the strong bond between two loved ones. The manaia symbol, traditionally with the tail of a fish, body of a man, and head of a bird, is a messenger between the living and the dead. The tiki symbol, represents the first man and can have many meanings: fertility, good luck, and life. The matau or fish hook symbolizes prosperity and safe travel over water. This cool design combines both fish and hook into one symbol. Finally, the toki, or adze, represents an axe head and symbolizes strength.
Like other Polynesian art, there are countless combinations of designs you can put together to come up with artwork unique to your personal style.
In our next segment, we will cover the tribal tattoo traditions of North America – stay tuned!
Check out our other entries in the tattoo styles series:
http://tattooshopfinder.com/2015/09/20/tattoo-styles-series-traditional-and-neo-traditional/
Spring 2015
April 24, 2015
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