Dragon Tattoos as Universal Tattoos

By Jackson Dylan

In the early days, the Romans and Greeks employed body marks such as tattoos on gladiators, slaves and prisoners as a means to identify them from the rest of the villagers but in the recent year tattooing has become fashion statement and is generally common among males. The more tattoos on the body, the tougher the image but that too has changed as soon as awareness and freedom of expression took on a new level. Tattooing has also become common with women too and has become an excellent mode of showing the world their feelings and interests, even their sensuality.

Of all the mythical creatures, the dragon is the most universal and is prominently featured in hundreds of cultures that represent the elements and the four points of the compass. In the Far East dragons symbolizes Water, Earth, Underworld and Sky and in the West it is more often a early enemy with whom combat is considered the ultimate supreme test. The dragon is a culturally far-ranging character whose apparent bad temper should be interpreted as simply amoral, neither good nor evil. Nature nurtures as well as destroys and so too does the dragon and probably for this reason its meaning as a symbol is not always consistent. Rain, lightning, floods, comets in the night sky – all the chaos and uncertainty of the Universe can be represented by the symbol of the dragon.

The image of dragon is the prototype of dinosaur. It has always been imagined breathing fire. Those are called fire dragon. There are water dragon tattoos also that causes the springs to bubble up, but also drowned people. But whatever be the type of dragon it may be, powerful dragons are often balanced with other tattoo designs that symbolize aspects of yin and yang. The several aspects of yin and yang reflects that no quality of its opposite, nor so pure that it does not contain its opposite in a diminished form. Although the fire dragon tattoo is thought to conquer all things and water dragon tattoo represents fears or repressed feelings or emotions. To the Chinese, the fire-spitting dragon was principally associated with lightning, and by extension to thunder and rainmaking, which made it a symbol of fertility while the Ancient Emperors and Celtic kings adopted the dragon as a symbol of the rhythm of existence that ensured order and prosperity. According to Jungian psychologists the water dragon symbolizes the deeper reaches of our subconscious.

As with most cultural and artistic styles and trends, tattoos and tattooing have endured various cycles of popularity, waxing and waning over the years, but never far from the people's imagination.