Express Undying Devotion with Heart Tattoos

Heart tattoos have always been popular, and we usually associate them with the old school, flash type of tattooing. Here’s the typical scenario: a couple, wanting to express undying love for one another, get matching heart tattoos with each other’s names written across the heart image, perhaps on a sort of banner. Flames or roses may be used to further embellish the heart tattoo image. A few years later, when the couple go their separate ways, each is left with an indelible reminder – and a dilemma regarding what to do with it. Some people opt to get their heart tattoo designs filled in, to obscure the name – others opt for tattoo removal. Still others decide that it’s part of their history they’ll just have to live with. In any case, heart tattoos – or the impetuous decision to get them – have been the cause of much embarrassment and regret.

That’s exactly that sort of scenario that gives tattoos a bad name! On the other hand, the heart is such a powerful and universal symbol that it’s unlikely heart tattoos will ever disappear entirely. And nowadays, the symbol has become considerably more versatile, with less potential for embarrassment. For example, a tribal heart – done in simple black lines, with no names mentioned – is timeless and classy. A ‘Claddagh’ heart is a beautiful symbol that comes from 17 th century Ireland. You many have seen the more common ring version, but the images translate very well into tattoo art. The Claddagh heart is a composition consisting of a heart with a hand on either side, and a crown on top of it. The hands denote friendship, the heart love, and the crown loyalty. Women in Ireland would wear the Claddagh ring in their right hand with the heart facing outward when they were ‘available’, then turn it inward when they were betrothed. A Claddagh ring on the left hand means that the woman is happily married.

There are many other varieties of heart tattoos. Interestingly, some consist not of the simple valentine heart but of a more realistic human heart, complete with veins – this certainly adds some ‘edge’ to heart tattoo designs, but it doesn’t take away from the beauty of the image. A flaming heart may be used to denote passion, while a heart with winds may have several meanings: perhaps love has ‘flown away’, or a loved one has died. On the other hand, it could also mean that one is ‘riding high’, soaring on the wings of love! In short, heart tattoos are unusually eloquent and expressive tattoo images, which accounts for their continued popularity despite the fact that they are sometimes considered ‘cheesy’ or overly sentimental!