Tribal Tattoo Designs

Tribal tattoo designs come in many forms due to the large number of tribes that existed around the world over many centuries. The tribal tattoo design is even taking on its own form now with artists creating new designs not seen on the tribesman. Animals were a common image on the body of the tribesman due to the continuous encounters they had with animals in their everyday existence especially the birds and fish. Animals were not only used for food and the skins for clothing but the tribes used them to protect their families and themselves so it was the perfect symbolic image to be marked on the skin. Special events like catching a large animal were also commemorated on the skin to advertise ones ability.

The majority of tribal tattoo designs were of lines, shapes and dots all with their own symbol and meaning. Each tribe had a different design and a different reason for the tattoo. Lines on a woman could mean she was growing up, ready for marriage or her father was off on a voyage to trade or hunt. Lines on a man could mean he was ready for war, the number of enemies he had defeated or it was to show his status in the tribe. Today the lines are thick, solid black, abstract designs with a lot of sharp edges. These graphic designs of modern day are a popular move away from the colorful designs seen in the flower-power days of the 1960’s.

Today’s tribal tattoo designs have become a very popular form of body art around the world. Having developed slowly over the years the real push for tribal came around the 1970s when tattoos started to become more acceptable to mainstream people. As the unfavourable image tattoos represented started to fade, more affluent people were targeted as they had the money to afford a tattoo. However what they were looking for was not the common “old school” designs the sailors were wearing but something different in the name of art. They were interested in new designs and were searching Japanese art and the tribal pictures. As more research was published on tribes in books, magazines and television, more people wanted those tribal designs they had seen in the media. Some artists specialised in indigenous tribal designs but today the ease at which the design is applied is another reason for its popularity.