Ancient Celtic Tattoo Designs
About 20 years ago tattoos were still only popular among men, especially bikers, sailors and military men. Also
most of the time the kind of tattoos they had were simple icons like anchors, skulls, a woman's name, the word
mother etc.
Things have changed though. Tattoos are now donned by both men and women and the range of tattoo designs
available are as broad as the number of different kinds of art available in the fine arts business. Subject matter
for these tattoo designs can be anything from insects, elf runes to landscapes.
Some of the most common tattoo designs are dragons, koi fish, butterflies, roses and tribal tattoos.
Tribal tattoos are a category all on their own coming from a variety of countries and cultures. One of the
most frequently requested tribal tattoo types are Celtic tattoo designs.
Now if you're looking to get a Celtic tattoo it's necessary to be familiar with tattoo placement on the body and
the different kinds of Celtic tattoo patterns that are available.
When choosing your Celtic tattoo design the first thing you need to do is find an artist who is qualified to do
a Celtic tattoo. You can do this several ways.
You can search on the internet for tattoo artists who specialize in doing Celtic tattoos, you can ask friends
and family members who have Celtic tattoos where they went to get theirs done. A lot of people also go to
specilized tattoo websites like www.tattoomenow.com to find a good
template that they can modify or have the tattoo artist modify it for them. This particular website also offers a
list of tattoo studios in your area. Once you locate the studios near your residence, you should go and ask the
tattoo artists there if they do Celtic tattoos and see if they've included examples of Celtic tattoo designs in
their portfolios.
This is very important, because Celtic tattoos take a considerable amount of skill and experience to do well.
First, a Celtic tattoo design needs to have at least about a centimetre of space between the lines of it's design
because if they're too close they can bleed into each other, not good. The other thing to watch out for is the line
work, for the un-experienced tattoo artist it's too easy to mess up the lines in a Celtic tattoo design because of
how the lines stop and start as they weave in and out of each other, you don't want them to be made unevenly,
closed in one place and not in the other causing a break in the design.
 Another way to check and see if your tattoo artist in question is a
qualified tattoo artist is to check with the better business bureau to make sure there have been no registered
complaints against the artist or the establishment he or she works in.
Also try to check with other people who have had their tattoos done at the establishment. You want to look for
things like the smoothness of the tattoos, any bumpiness is a sign that the tattoo artist didn't inject the
tattooing needle at the correct depth into the skin. This would be a warning flag that the artist is an
amateur.
Another factor to think about is whether or not you want a permanent tattoo or a temporary one. Permanent
tattoos can be removed but it's really difficult and expensive, usually requiring laser treatment procedures. It's
also quite a bit more painful than getting the tattoo done itself.
Temporary tattoos on the other hand can be applied with henna, a plant that gets ground down into an extremely
fine powder then mixed with different liquids to produce a great, non-toxic skin dyeing agent widely used in Asia,
Africa and the Middle East.
Celtic tattoo designs are symbols and patterns derived from Celtic history. The ancient Celts living in an area
now known as Ireland and Scotland, had a very spiritual, mystical culture that not enough is known of today because
of a lack of written accounts, however what was passed down through oral tradition and remnants of metal work and
crafts has lent itself to become examples of a rich legacy of civility and art well worth being proud of and
decorating the body with as tattoo designs.
Examples of Celtic tattoo designs are the tree of life which symbolizes the endless cycle and continuity of life
and the Celtic knot, a special knot that has no beginning or end, representing the eternal cycle of death and
re-birth.
Other kinds of Celtic knot work are zoomorphic knots that end in animal hands, heads, legs and/or feet and what
are called 'un-pure' knots that have broken ends. Also there are the spiral tattoo designs and the maze, or better
known as labyrinth design tattoos all defying literal translation. Their meanings are associated with the
harmonious and permanent connections between life, love and spiritualism, this being one of the reasons behind
their popularity.
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