Religious tattoos
Religious tattoos can be classified according to their relevance to this or that religion, be it Islam, Buddhism or Christianity. Each of these religions is full of certain symbolic signs that identify it from others. Many people who believe want to apply a religious tattoo with religious symbolism to be closer to God but not all religions approve such body transformations. Still religious tattoos can be counted as the separate trend in tattoo art. Their images is very artistic and they can be called real masterpieces. Sometimes one such tattoo, for example with the image of some saint, can be applied for several days or even weeks when the unique religious tattoo designs in terms of beauty and skillfulness are created.
Religious tattoos reveal the attitude of the person to this or that religion, beliefs. The main religious symbols are considered to be the images of crosses, half-moons, passages from sacred books, the images of the saints, depiction of the events that take place in this or that religion.
Religious tattoos for a long time were banned by religions as the attribute of pagans, that was considered a great sin. But the tradition was not destroyed fully, partly because of pilgrims. In medieval times many people left their villages to visit Sacred lands and the main proof of the fact that they were there were the tattoos of local priests.
Muslims applied jubilee religious tattoos when visiting Mecca because they believed that after death with the use of cremation they will pure themselves and will appear pure before the God.
Aborigines that were converted to Christianity, were deliberately applied religious tattoo designs representing crosses, for them not to be able to convert to other religions. Later several pilgrims were applied the God Mother, Jesus baby, St. Peter and other religious tattoo images.
In Russia the peak of popularity for religious tattoos, as it can seem strange, happened during the time of socialism, when the politics was deliberately fighting the religion. And to add, the bearers of such religious tattoos usually were the prisoners, who didn’t have close and evident connection with religion. It can be the absence of the way out to draw them closer to God, or maybe religious tattoos were the so-called protest against the political regime – everybody seemed to have his own motifs to apply religious tattoo designs.
Despite of the fact that even now not every religion accept tattoos, religious tattoos are very wide-spread and can be even considered the separate trend in the tattoo art. Now, with the development of the tattoo industry and the appearance of skillful tattoo artists and the freedom of youth, religious tattoos are applied deliberately and often represent the real masterpiece.
For today there are many official registered associations of the Christian tattoos who offer their services. The services simply consist of application of tattoos in the form of canonical texts and Bible verses. Such tattoos can be even sanctified, if there is the need for it.
Religious tattoos can be very different and can be applied to various body parts. This means that you are not limited in your choice of design and place of application. The fact is that you have to be rather cautious with religious tattoo and chosen religion – it will not be cheap and easy to remove religious tattoo, as any other tattoo, so choose wisely and apply religious tattoo only if you think yourself to be a strong believer of the religion you have chosen. The variety of religious tattoos is really great.