Aztec tattoos
In ancient times there have been a lot of tribes, who revealed the art using tattoos. Aztec tribes were among the most well known, who mastered this art. Aztec left to us a great heritage of different beautiful symbols. Aztec tattoos were the form of the art that was admired and significant in their culture. Aztec tattoo designs are well known for their complexity and variety. Some pictures and whole trends of images were sacred for Aztecs. Most of Aztec tattoos had religious meaning, sacred or ritual. Many people nowadays choose to make Aztec tattoos because of their visual appealing.
In the life of Aztec tribes art has always played a vital role. Children and women, for example, were taught art. Most of Aztec tattoos are ritual. Aztecs who lived more than six hundred years ago knew the importance of Gods in their everyday life.
Aztec tattoos meanings are much different from other tattoos. The main difference is that such tattoos have not only great meaning in terms of culture, but they have also been used for fulfilling different rituals and for worship different gods.
One of the most vital gods for Aztecs was Huitzilopchtili, the god of the sun, who gave life and was the guardian of heaven. This god was depicted with blue face. Constant sunrises and sunsets for Aztecs were the proofs of existence of life after death. But in Aztec tattoos not only the sun is depicted, but also used symbols of Aztec language, that were meaning the sun. In modern life Aztec tattoo design depicting the sun according to Aztec tradition may mean the belief in the afterlife. Another interesting thing about Aztec tattoo is Aztec knife that according to the belief was used to cut out the heart of the man thus giving sacrifice to the god of the sun. Very popular among Aztec tattoo designs is the god of warriors who often is depicted with his tongue out. The warriors of Maori applied such tattoo.
Aztecs also believed in the winged god – snake. He was the god of art, god of weather and fertility and the symbol of ancient wisdom. Today the image depicting him is the most popular Aztec tattoo design. He was the chief god of Aztecs who took care about almost every aspect of life. Feathered god, also a snake, had a great meaning in religion and art of the most countries in Central America for almost two thousand years.
But there are not only Aztec tattoos that depict their gods. Some tattoos were designed to tell about the position of their owner in society and about his achievements in life.
People thought that the success in battles and in life is dependent on gods, that’s why every person should have made the tattoo on their bodies. The body parts were chosen not randomly. Stomach, chest and arms were considered to be the main energetic centers of the body and that’s why Aztec tattoos were applied to them.
Also popular Aztec tattoo designs depict moon and starts that remain very popular even nowadays.
Aztec tattoos were applied not only to grown-up persons, but also to children. Nowadays many people choose Aztec tattoo designs because of their beauty. Traditional Aztec tattoos were always very vivid, as well as other examples of Aztec arts. They are always very stylish. Aztecs had a very good and well developed culture and this we can see in their sculpture, architecture and textile. All this complexity can be seen even nowadays in different Aztec tattoo designs, that most of times represent rather complex object and images, that take usually a lot of time to be applied on body. It goes out of the question that only a qualified and really good tattoo artist can cope with such extraordinary task.