Perhaps the most straightforward of the skull designs, the Grim Reaper skull is adorned with a long scythe and a black robe, and it represents courage, good fortune, and the circle of life.
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Drug dealers and prostitutes often wore these designs to indicate their business. This rendering shows a skull without a lower jaw, and it represents moral looseness. Death’s Head Tattoo Designs:Īlso known as totenknopf in German, the Death’s Head is a skull design that has origins in Elizabethan England. The cross-bones can also represent poison. This classic skull tattoo design is based on the pirate’s emblem, and it stands for the ruthlessness and despair associated with the life of a pirate. As such, this unique tattoo design has come to represent portals of new understanding, power, and transience. In Celtic culture, the skull was viewed as the seat of the soul. Moses, around 1400 BC, used the bronze serpent erected on the pole to cure the people who were bitten by snakes.Popular in Texas and the Western United States, the bull skull tattoo design is a symbol for strength, courage, and agility.
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The caduceus is a symbol with a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings while the Rod of Asclepius is the one with a single snake.
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There are two medical symbols with snakes – one is the Caduceus, and the other is the Rod of Asclepius. The Ouroboros (an image of a snake eating its own tail) is an ancient symbol that originated in Egypt and can represent the circle of life and death and rebirth. It symbolizes the changing seasons of life and the cyclical nature of the universe.
#Circle of life tattoo skin#
The ability of a snake to shed its own skin means that it can be interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, change, transformation, or healing. However, across many cultures, the snake is a symbol of fertility and creative life force, due in part to the snake’s phallic shape. That has helped shape their meaning as dangerous in the Judo-Christian cultures.Īnother typical Christian meaning of snakes is temptation and sin, that relates back to the Bible stories of the forbidden apple. Snakes are predator animals, where some breed possess the most powerful and deadly venoms on the planet. The spirit of the snake is connected to life force, primal energy.In Native American culture, when the snake shows up as your spirit animal, it generally means: Whether good or evil, there is no doubt that the snake is a powerful symbol and reptile that has evolved since the age of dinosaurs, or if religious, from the very Garden of Eden itself, alongside ravens. Many symbolicisms related to snake being a symbol of rebirth, change, or even immortality, are drawn from the skin-shedding properties of the snake. In ancient Aztec tradition, the chief god told people to settle at a place where they find an eagle perched on a cactus eating a snake. To this day, it is a common Hindu understanding that all nagas protect all water sources. Nagas in this light are considered a feminine aspect and embody nurturing benevolent, wise qualities. In Eastern Indian myth the Sanskrit word for snake is naga and these are associated with the element of water. In some African communities, especially in Nigeria, rock python is considered sacred and it is strictly prohibited killing them. In other culturese, snakes are connected to wisdom and knowledge, such as in ancient Greek mythology. In many myths, serpents are a symbol of the Underworld. Nevertheless, due to some snakes being one of the most poisonous ones, they are respected animals. That said, they were benevolent before they became malevolent mostly with the help of Abrahamic religions.Ĭhristians view it as a dangerous, trouble-making animal, given that it was the devil in disguise as a snake tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden. The vast examples of snake Gods in old civilizations showcase that and the artefacts representing them innumerable. Interestingly, before our fear of snakes came into being, people actually considered snakes as creators and protectors of Mother Earth and humanity.
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In China, it is one of the astrological symbols – everybody born under the snake sign is said to have massive wealth and live a good life (contrasting to strength and power to those born in the year of the tiger).ĭepending on culture, in some places on the Earth snakes can be seen as foe or friend, a symbol of life or death truly dualistic element. Accordingly, it appears in Egyptian iconography, it’s one of the most important symbols in the Bible. Snakes or serpents are believed to be one of the oldest symbols being used in mythology, religion, and art.