A Guide to Snake Tattoo Designs
Butterfly Tattoos
Skull Tattoos
Angel Tattoos
Snake tattoo designs are one of the oldest and still one of the most popular tattoo designs. The abounding number of stories dating back over time can go toward explaining this popularity.
Many of the best snake tattoo designs are seen incorporated with other designs, such as, hearts and daggers, or skulls and dragons. No matter what theme you are running with the snake tattoo design will not look out of place.
Another reason why the snake is one of the best tattoo designs is because you can use as much or as little colour and the design will still look fantastic. The brilliant array of snake scales in various shades from the very bright to a dull hue. If you choose a black and grey wash it will still just as stunning.
Snakes and serpents have a long mythological history associated with good and evil, life and death, beginnings and endings.
The shedding of skin by the snake as it grows has been seen as a symbol of rebirth, change, and healing. The ancient Greeks believed snakes sacred to the god of medicine Asclepius who had a staff with serpents wrapped around it, which is still used as the symbol in modern medicine.
The Ancient Greeks and Egyptians believed the snake was a symbol of immortality. The Greeks had Ouroboros, a snake curled into a circle biting its own tail. The idea being that the continuing eating and regrowing of the tail is a symbol of the eternal cycle of ruin and re-birth.
In some mythologies snakes are seen as the keeper of the underworld, symbolizing unseen wisdom and sacred secrets. But the snake has also been show as a symbol of evil, death, or deceit. In Christianity, the serpent tricks Adam and Eve into disobeying God. Myths involving snakes often showed them as evil, this may be in part due to their deadly venom.
In Australia, India, and Africa, where snake myths are related to rainbows, and rainbows are often associated with rain and fertility. Another rainbow association with snakes is Da, a mythological African serpent who kept the oceans and sky in place and we could catch a quick look at Da when a rainbow appears.
Whatever your reason for wanting a snake tattoo I hope this guide to snake tattoo designs has given you some insight into the meanings behind snake tattoo designs, and if you want to read more on snakes and other popular tattoo designs, then go to my site A Guide to Tattoo Designs, and you will see reviews on the best tattoo designs.
