The Number of Tattoos

The Number of Tattoos

Numbers can make for fascinating tattoo designs. Who - in a moment of truth - wouldn't confess to having a personal number they consider "Lucky". And does anyone on a sports team want Jersey Number 13, or to work on the thirteenth floor of an office tower? In fact, the superstition against the number thirteen is so strong that most buildings "skip" the thirteenth floor as if didn't even exist! Lovers of rituals and ceremony, going back thousands of years, believe in a direct link between man and God through the properties of certain numbers. Kabbalists, Masons, and Hindus use the 'Sacred 3'. Multiples of it create the 'Mysterious 9' in rituals performed to acquire divine attributes. These numbers were said to be suggested by Nature, and contain mystic properties.

Johnny Depp has the number 3 tattooed on his left hand, on the web of his hand between his thumb and his forefinger. David Beckham has his lucky number V11 in Roman numerals. Since men first learned how to count, numbers and destiny have always gone hand in hand. The old favourite 7 is still considered to be a perfect number in cultures springing from ancient Greece, while 8 is the great favourite for luck, power, and material wealth in cultures originating in China. Our fascination with numbers begins in the cradle – remember counting fingers and toes? Then came the days of the week, the months in the year, the planets, the stars and onwards to infinity.

Wherever you come from, we can all agree about fingers and toes, but just about everything else is open for debate. Take the number '13' -- the unlucky number. In the sporting world, it’s likely to be banned from racing cars, stable doors, and athletes’ shirts. In Medieval times, witches in Europe were believed to have supernatural powers associated with the cycles of the moon – yes, there are 13 in one year. But in many religions, '13' has positive associations -- re-birth in Christianity, mercy in Judaism, and remembrance of God in Sikhism

The Nautical Star Tattoos

The Nautical Star Tattoos

The nautical star is a very old modern tattoo, going back at least a century or more. Back in the days of yore, before modern navigation, sailors would navigate in part by the stars in the night skies, in particular the North Star in the Northern Hemisphere, and various other constellations of stars in the night sky. In the Southern Hemisphere, sailors had to use different stars and the Southern Cross became quite well-known. Sailors would then tattoo nautical stars on them because they relied on the stars to take them home, and being superstitious, they hoped their star tattoos would get them home safely as well.

Compass stars are also popular for this reason. The nautical stars were originally used by sailors to help guide their way as they sailed through the night. They relied upon the stars to protect them and bring them home safely.

A lot of soldiers get nautical stars for the same reason... protection. It is a symbol of protection and guidance. It was a very popular tattoo among sailors.

So a case could be made that the nautical star tattoo, or a tattoo of any star for that matter, would be a symbol of guidance. Now as time has passed the nautical stars represent the direction of one's life, for those of us who are not sailors but still need guidance.

Some say that if the nautical star is pointed upwards they have a higher outlook on life and so on.

The meaning of the Nautical star is to create your own path, but use the stars as a guide when you are lost or scared.

Nautical or Maritime Tattoos

Nautical or Maritime Tattoos

The meaning of Nautical or Maritime Tattoos are tattoos derived from the very roots and history of modern tattooing. Sailors were among the first to revive the art and practice of tattooing when they visited the islands of Polynesia in the South Pacific and other lands in Southeast Asia. Captain Cook in his famous explorations to Tahiti, Hawaii and New Zealand was the first to record the tattooing of the indigenous people in 1786. The word tattoo in the English language come from the Tahitian word, 'ta-taw', which was thought to mimic the sound made by the traditional Polynesian tattooing implements as they made a tattoo. When the sailors returned to Europe with tattoos that were essentially exotic souvenirs of their travels and adventures, European audiences were fascinated.

Best Native American Tattoo Design

Best Native American Tattoo Design

Native American tattoo designs and symbols - much like tattoos designs described as "Polynesian tattooing" - is an enormous area of tattooing culture to cover. As in Polynesia with the many diverse far-flung cultures of the South Pacific, native North America was and is made up of hundreds and hundreds of culturally distinctive indigenous peoples.
Traditional tattooing in North America has largely disappeared, with isolated exceptions. The primary reasons for this were a combination of the early colonization of much of the continental United States by European settlers, Canada, and Mexico and the practice of religious conversion of the native populations and widespread pressures for the indigenous peoples to abandon their traditional spiritual and cultural practices like tattooing and become assimilated into the European population.

Star Tattoos Design

Star Tattoos Design

Stars are often encountered as symbols, and many cases the meaning of a particular star symbol may depend upon the number points it has, and sometimes the orientation of these points as well. As a light shining in the darkness, the star is often considered a symbol of truth, of the spirit and of hope. The symbol of the star embodies the concept of the divine spark within each of us. Their nocturnal nature leads stars to represent the struggle against the forces of darkness and the unknown.