Animal Tattoo Designs and Charm Tattoos

Before you let anybody tell you that tattoos are trendy just remember that mankind has been carving up his body with tattoos for the last 12,000 years. Many cultures felt that acquiring a tattoo transformed the person receiving them and that the tattoo afforded them protection from a myriad of dangers and physical elements. It’s no surprise then that today animal and charm tattoos continue to be one of the most popular themes in tattooing today.

Star Tattoos

These are one of the most searched for tattoo styles on the internet—and for good reason. They are simple and pretty hard to screw up. Variants like shooting star tattoos and celestial tattoo designs provide the wearer to express an interplanetary consciousness on their person without having to get an entire sleeve or back done. But star tattoos are also flexible and allow for an expanded creative tattoo design that can cover up the entire body.

One of the hottest designs right now is the nautical star tattoo. These ancient tattoos date back to when sailors needed the stars to navigate and would tattoo these stars on their body for easier travel—making them very popular with modern-day sailors.

Heart Tattoos

These continue to be a popular way to express love and admiration. Heart tattoo designs can come in many different forms such as the Celtic heart tattoo, the tribal heart tattoo, and even the broken heart tattoo. Considering the old tattoo artist admonition that “love lasts forever…but a tattoo lasts six months longer” it’s important to have as many different kinds of heart tattoos as possible.

Animal Tattoos

Maori tribes in New Zealand believed that a tattoo of a certain animal would allow some of that animal’s qualities seep into the wearer. That belief, if not articulated, is still certainly felt by people whether they have dolphin tattoos, tiger tattoos, or those ever-popular wolf tattoos. When someone creates a scorpion tattoo they are certainly identifying themselves with some aspect of the scorpion.
And that’s what makes these tattoos special. They can be pretty and highly decorative and just simply that. Or they can be symbolic in a way that allows the person wearing them to express a part of themselves.