When one sits and thinks about tattoo designs that are almost always considered to be love tattoos or at least related to love then most probably one’s mind would go to heart tattoos. Heart tattoos have always been strongly associated with the expression of love and passion, and they’ve been part of tattooing culture for a very long time.These types of tattoos have increased almost exponentially in popularity in recent decades because they’ve started to be considered feminine tattoos, not necessarily meaning that only women get heart tattoos – that’s not true at all, just that there’s been an influx of women getting heart tattoos in later times ever since the tattoo as a form of body art lost its stigma. Another thing that changed about heart tattoos in the past couple of decades is the sheer flexibility of the concept, nowadays that old shade of red not being the standard any longer, so heart tattoos can showcase a wide array of colors and shapes, and they do well when combined with other images like angel tattoos for instance.
The heart has been seen in different ways by many cultures across time, to some it was the base of emotions while to others it was the center of spirituality, to others it actually represented the center of the intellect, however regardless of this heart tattoos have a common symbolism in being related to feelings whether they’re happy feelings or sad ones. For instance heart tattoos in which the heart is broken in two usually talk about the loss of a loved one or the ending of a relationship. These types of tattoos ideas can also represent feelings of sadness or painful memories, even grief.
One popular image of heart tattoos is the by now very classic image of a heart being pierced by an arrow, this type of tattoo is considered to universally represent both unforgettable but at the same time sad memories of love. On the other hand heart with wings tattoos are meant to represent a free spirit and sometimes you’ll see tattoos pictures that combine this idea with the motifs found in fairy tattoos since those represent the free spirit with a sprinkle of mischief.
Now most if not all the heart tattoos we’ve discussed till now could be worn by both women and men, however there are some particular individuals that stake their claim on specific types of heart tattoos. Sailors for one are well known for combining heart tattoos with all types of nautical related images the most classic being anchors. Soldiers also boast a specific type of heart tattoos as well, the tattoos usually associated with soldiers have a heart and a dagger and they symbolize bravery, however the same image can also mean betrayal when used by non-military individuals.
As far as the placement of the heart tattoos goes, when it comes to men they’re what one might expect the classical locations of either on their biceps or on their chest, but women on the other hand like to be more expressive as to where they tattoo themselves and they can place a heart nearly anywhere on their bodies.