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Butterfly tattoos have been among one of the most popular tattoo designs that have been requested for woman over the past years. Butterfly tattoos hold a unique fascination with the human race and have always been subject to artistic expression whether it’s in music, tattoos, paintings, etc. With its vivid colors, striking lines, and distinctiveness, most people can’t disagree with the beauty of a butterfly.

There are literally millions of butterfly tattoo designs. With that in mind finding the right design can take time. Tribal style butterflies, Celtic butterfly designs, fairy butterflies, big bold butterflies, to small butterfly tattoo designs and anything else in between.

Butterfly tattoos can hold a variety of different meanings. If you’re not already on the bandwagon for a butterfly tattoo perhaps I can persuade you with the following information. Below I have given some information on what butterfly tattoos can represent, facts about butterflies, as well as testimonials from people that have received butterfly tattoo designs. Please keep in mind that a butterfly tattoo can represent different things to different people, below are just some brief examples.

Butterfly Symbolism

• Represents the fragility of life

• Transformation or change as well as love and joy

• Simplicity

• Peace

• A new life

• A new beginning

• Serves as a reminder to make changes when the opportunities arise

• The butterfly flight appears as though its dancing, a reminder not to take things so seriously

At first a butterfly is an ugly caterpillar and nobody even thinks to give it a second look. With time and dedication it transforms into something breathtaking. The metamorphosis process makes the butterfly a powerful symbol for transformation. Throughout our life we will be faced with change and transformation. A butterfly tattoo is an excellent way to remember that change, the dedication it took, and serves as a constant reminder to make the necessary changes when the opportunities present themselves.

Butterfly Facts

• About 28,000 known butterfly species throughout the world

• Butterflies weigh as little as two rose petals (could incorporate this into your tattoo design)

• The wings of a butterfly are actually transparent; the vivid colors are due to overlapping bright scales

• Butterflies only fly during the day

• You won’t kill a butterfly by touching its wings

Butterfly Tattoo Testimonials

• I just received my butterfly tattoo a month ago and for me it symbolizes a new life, a new beginning if you will. For years I have tried to please everyone by being someone I’m not. My butterfly tattoo was a gift to me for being me. The process was exhilarating and the tattoo is calm, vibrant, colorful, and most of all beautiful. Everything that I want to be.

• My grandma died and before she was buried she was put into her coffin in a closed depressing room that didn’t have windows or ventilation. A dismal electric bulb was the only thing that lighted her while her loved ones said goodbye. When they arrived into the room they found a butterfly flying around with its vivid colored wings and it has remained a mystery of how it arrived there. This incident caused me to get a butterfly tattoo. For me my tattoo symbolizes the spirit, life and death with its three stages of mankind, and reincarnation. Finally, it also symbolizes the short and intense life and the magic dust on a butterfly’s wing is our freedom that enables our flight.

In conclusion butterfly tattoos are not only a great choice for their vivid colors and beauty, but also for the deep rooted meanings they can provide.

Show me more Butterfly Tattoo Designs

Medical staff tattoos represent the power of healing and the knowledge behind the medical profession. The Staff of Asclepius has long been a popular tattoo design within dividuals who work in the medical professions, especially with those who provide Emergency Medical Services, such as Paramedics and Emergency Room personnel.

The Medical Staff is an ancient Greek symbol associated with astrology, and with healing the sick through medicine. It consists of a serpententwined around a staff. Asclepius, the son of Apollo, was a practitioner of medicine in ancient Greek mythology. The rod of Asclepius symbolizes the healing arts by combining the serpent, which in shedding its skin is a symbol of rebirth and fertility, with the staff, a symbol of authority befitting the god of Medicine. The snake wrapped around the staff is widely claimed to be a species of rat snake also known as the Aesculapian or Asclepian snake. It is native to southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, and some central European spa regions, apparently brought there by Romans for their healing properties.

According to Greek mythology, Asclepius was said to have learned the art of healing from Chiron. He is customarily represented as a surgeon on the ship Argo. Asclepius was so skilled in the medical arts that he was reputed to have brought patients back from the dead. For this, he was punished and placed in the heavens as the constellation Ophiuchus (meaning "serpent-bearer"). This constellation lies between Sagittarius and Libra. In early Christianity, the constellation Ophiuchus was associated with Saint Paul holding the Maltese Viper. According to some, Asclepius fought alongside the Achaeans in the Trojan War, and cured Philoctetes of his famous snakebite.

Show me more Caduceus & Medical Staff Tattoo Designs

In the end, the place where you get your tattoo will have as big of an impact on your life as the tattoo itself. If getting the tattoo is a positive experience, then you will always equate that tattoo with positive feelings and enjoy reliving the experience. If, on the other hand, you feel uncomfortable during your tattooing session, you may look back on the tattoo (even if the design is perfect) with a lingering distaste that can mar your enjoyment of your tattoo permanently. Of course, there are also a variety of health considerations that you need to factor in when you are getting tattooed, and it is vital that you select a tattoo studio that is clean and follows all sterilization guidelines and requirements when it comes to their artists tools and their general maintenance. Picking the right tattoo studio for you is fairly straightforward, but you do have to keep a clear head and make sure that you are not overwhelmed by your eagerness to get the ink on your skin and allow yourself to select a tattoo studio that is not a good fit. 

Here are three steps to picking the right tattoo studio for you:

1.    Factor in safety first.

Above all, a tattoo studio needs to be safe for you to get tattooed in. This does not mean you need to love the lighting or adore the decor. It means that the studio needs an autoclave for cleaning tattoo equipment, clean chairs, lounges and facilities for clients, and enough light for the artist to see what they are doing and for you to see the floor. While there are a lot of popular perceptions about tattoo studios in movies that portray them as glamorous, dark and potentially dangerous and mysterious arenas, in real life, this type of tattoo studio is not a good place to get a tattoo. Most tattoo studios are well-lit, highly sterile environments, and while the waiting area may cater to a variety of preconceived notions about tattoo parlors, the actual tattooing arena will always be meticulously clean. All tattoo studios should sterilize equipment using an autoclave, never save ink and be willing to open disposable equipment in front of you to reassure you that it has not previously been exposed to handling or airborne contamination. 

2.    Find an artist you really like and trust. 

Once you have found a tattoo studio that you are comfortable with, it is important to also get comfortable with the tattoo artist who will be doing your tattoo. Of course, if you decide to go get tattooed in a famous shop such as the one on Miami Ink, then you may not really have the option of getting to know your artist personally very far in advance of your tattooing session. In this type of scenario, in which case a specific artist is in very high demand, you will have to rely on their reputation and check in ahead of time to make sure that they are comfortable with your tattoo design and with using a stencil to make sure that your tattoo comes out just as you hope. In general, however, you will be able to spend a little time getting to  know the artist and vice versa and the two of you will likely be able to determine in fairly short order whether or not your styles and your ideas for your tattoo design will work together in a pleasing manner for everyone. 

3.    Make sure that the studio can meet your physical needs. 

Some tattoo studios are extremely posh and boast body-contoured chairs, a variety of chaises and lounges to help you recline comfortably regardless of where you are getting your tattoo, and a high degree of privacy, including privately walled off rooms for individual artists and their canvases.If you are shy or do not possess much stamina when it comes to remaining still, then this type of studio will be the best for you. On the other hand, many other tattoo studios are much more bare bones. You may be required to lean over the back of a chair in order to get a lower back tattoo, or sprawl in a lounge in the middle of the room while your artist works and other people enter and exit on a variety of errands and getting their own tattoos. Before you start your tattoo, make sure that you will be able to fulfill your end of the bargain by holding still and not making things more difficult or take longer than they should be in the available tattooing environment.

After the tragedy on September 11, 2001 that left thousands of Americans dead and the entire country in mourning, there was an incredible influx of support for members of the military, the police departments and the fire departments throughout the country, focusing in particular on the divisions in New York City. As people looked for a way to deal with their grief and commemorate the people who died in the plane crashes, in the Pentagon and as a result of the collapse of the Twin Towers, they sought a method of memorial that would be public and permanent. For many, including those whose professions or personal tastes had never previously run toward body art, the memorial tattooor the 9/11 tattoo was the perfect and highly appropriate solution. 

As a result of 9/11, people went into mourning not only for the lives lost and the families disrupted and destroyed, but also for what is now viewed as a simpler time in a American history when the general public did not view the global community as a potential threat. As a result of this lost innocence, many 9/11 tattoos depict the Twin Towers as whole again, or show the planes flying into the buildings themselves. Twin Tower tattoos, FDNY tattoos and NYPD tattoos became very popular, even when the wearer was not actually a member of the Fire Department of New York or the New York Police Department. These tattoos were a way to show appreciation and admiration for the bravery of the rescue teams who entered the falling and fallen buildings and gratitude for the sacrifices that were made. 

9/11 tattoos are uniquely personal -- possibly even more so than a traditional tattoo, which is by nature about as personal as you can get -- because they are such a public expression of a person's inner mourning, patriotism or even anger. 9/11 tattoos are easily recognized, and can bring extremely disparate individuals together in camaraderie because of the shared national loss. Weeping eagle tattoos, angry eagle tattoos and fireman tattoos are popular 9/11 tattoo motifs, with the fireman often wearing angel wings or the eagle protectively encircling an image of the World Trade Center towers with American flag-striped wings. 

Other 9/11 tattoos are recognizable by the phrasing or the dates that they include, but are far more personal to the wearer. For example, many who escaped the buildingtattooed their floor level on the inside of their wrists to commemorate co-workers who did not make it out alive. Others have portrait tattoos of lost loved ones inked on their skin, accompanied by birth and death dates and the words "Never Forget." Another popular 9/11 tattoo design method is to incorporate vintage military images like bluebird tattoos, bulldog tattoos, swallow tattoos or even the Lady Luck tattoo or Men's Ruin tattoo into a personal expression of commemoration. For example, a bluebird tattoosurrounded by artistic flames with the words "Never Forget" on a scroll beneath it is an attractive way to make your feelings public while keeping your tattoo a bit more personal and decorative than some of the larger 9/11 tattoos like the Twin Tower mural tattoos and the angry eagle tattoos. 

Some 9/11 tattoos are even more highly personalized, and may represent a person's personal statement to the perpetrators of the tragedy. Popular but also humorous or at least lighter images include a tattoo of an eagle filing its talons, and quotes from the Toby Keith song The Angry American, which lead to a rash of boot tattoos referencing the lyrics "We'll put a boot in your a**, It's the American Way," which were directed toward terrorists throughout the world. 

Another interesting aspect of 9/11 tattoos is their high visibility. Regardless of the bearer's professional status or career goals, these tattoos are often worn on the inside of the wrist, where they would be visible even when wearing a man's dress shirt, or on areas of the body that are commonly visible, such as the shoulders, calves or back and nape of the neck. It appears that part of getting a 9/11 tattoo for many people involves making an important public statement about the importance of the event and the vitality of our nation's ability to remember and repay. If you are considering getting a 9/11 tattoo, be certain that you factor in your own emotional response to it. These tattoos have brought an incredible number of Americans together in unique and positive ways, but they do also serve as a constant reminder of one of the greatest tragedies in American history. As with any tattoo, be prepared to explain it and tell the story so that your statement can live on and develop a life of its own.

Show me more Twin Tower Tattoo Designs