Tattoos are the icons of many cultures because the tattoo often holds deep meanings for the cultures that practice tattooing. For the individual, the tattoo design is one of the most carefully chosen things that a person has to think of, because to have a tattoo inscribed on one's body means that the person must be ready to live with the chosen symbol for a very long time, because of the permanence that tattoos entail. While tattoos are iconic for many, the skull tattoo design is one of the most iconic tattoo symbols that can be chosen. There are various meanings for the skull tattoo design.
The skull tattoo design often talks about the value of life and death. Today, many western people simply associate the skull with death, but in many cultures the skull and bones is a symbol of something much more, life, as well as death. It is seen as the demarcation between the living and the vestige of those who have moved on to the sphere after death.
When somebody chooses the skull tattoo, one of the things that the person is symbolizing is the mature realization of a continuity of life into death, and the ability to accept death. This is very important because it is only when a person can live with the presence of death that he can fully learn to appreciate life.
Wisdom is another of the many meanings behind the symbolism of the skull tattoo. If you will look back at the art work produced by the ancient and medieval periods, the skull is often portrayed next to an open book because the skull is seen as a representation of the highest form of knowledge and wisdom, one that is achieved only when a person has lived a full life.
For the wiser people of the past, a full life is naturally not characterized by the excesses of youth, but by the wizened truths of aging as symbolized by skull tattoo designs. After all, it is only in today's culture that people have suddenly and exaggeratedly idealized the ageless and young. Before, it was the character-rich elders who held the high posts of society.
Age and experience is, therefore, one of the strong points in the skull tattoo design. Naturally, the skull is the result of age, and not only age but one that has reached the point of moving over towards death.
When a person looks at a skull, it shouldn't be death only that is seen, however, but the experiences that a person has undergone before reaching death. The skull then becomes a great symbol of everything that has come to pass and which has filled the pages of the book of life of a person.
In the end, the skull tattoo designs are a mixture of various symbolic elements that are each related to the other. Whether it is strength, life, wisdom, or death, the various interpretations that are available with this type of tattoo design has made it one of the most popular
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