Celtic Tattoos Popularity

Celtic tattoos are still one of the most popular types of design despite their long history. These designs have existed for thousands of years, yet more than one thousand people search for information about celtic tattoo designs every day. So why are these designs still such a popular choice for tattoos?

The Celtic people have a long and proud history. From ancient times their people have shown an artistic ability to create complex works of art. These elaborate patterns took pride of place on their stonework, metalwork, weapons and jewelry. In fact ancient celtic designs carved in stone can still be found in both Ireland and Scotland.

Celtic tattoo designs usually consist of elaborate patterns of lines, loops and spirals that are linked together in a decorative manner. Occasionally animal designs, often depicting the tiger and the lion are incorporated into the tattoo design. These celtic animal designs (often known as zoomorphic tattoo designs) differ from traditional celtic patterns as the various lines and strands of the design end in animal heads, feet and tails instead of following a never ending path.

The meaning of these patterns is not readily apparent. To find the real meaning of celtic artwork you have to look much deeper. The constant interlacing of lines and spirals symbolizes the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds. And the never ending route of the loops and spirals represents the never ending cycle of life, death and rebirth.

Celtic designs also represent the fight and the heart of the Celtic people who were renowned throughout the world as courageous warriors. And it's thanks to a combination of these noble values and the timeless symbolism of these patterns that they remain such a popular choice for tattoo designs.

The most popular and well known of all the celtic designs are the celtic knot and the celtic cross.

Celtic Knot: This tattoo consists of decorative loops with no beginning and no end which represents the continuing cycle of life and death.

Celtic Cross: The celtic cross is usually a highly elaborate design containing many interlinking spirals and strands. Once again, the lines used to create the outline of the cross don't have a beginning or an end, and as such represent the immortality of human life and love. The cross is also significant as the Celtic people believed it would protect them from their enemies.

Celtic tattoo designs are a great way of expressing pride in your ancestry whether you are of Irish, Scottish or Welsh descent. In fact these designs are highly popular among people from North America who have Celtic ancestors.

However, you should be aware that due to the elaborate nature of these patterns, celtic tattoo designs are not easy to create. So before you start, make sure that you find a tattoo artist who has experience in creating celtic tattoo designs. An eye for detail and the ability to place the lines and spirals in exactly the right place is vital. And even once you find a talented artist, it will take a lot of time, patience and dare I say it, tolerance of pain, in order to get your celtic design just right. So make sure that you find the perfect celtic design before you go any further.

Gustavo Gomez runs www.SuperTattooDesigns.com For more information about celtic tattoos and a wide range of other tattoo designs, check out Super Tattoo Designs.

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5 Places To Get Great Looking Free Tattoo Designs

Many tattoo enthusiasts would really love to have free tattoo designs as people would just prefer them to those that you need to pay to get those designs.

So if you have been looking for great looking free tattoo designs for a long time already, don't worry now. You can get your hands on 5 great places where you can find these designs that you want.

1. Photos

People rarely see photos as a source of finding free tattoo designs. People always think that photos are just too plain and cannot give much satisfaction to those extreme tattoo enthusiasts in terms of tattoo designs. But these photos can sometimes inspire new tattoo designs in you and best of all, it's free.

2. Libraries

Whether you are a bookworm or not, I'm sure you can still find the old library very much still useful to you. Just go to any nearby community library that you can find and go to the section where you can find those tattoos books to search for your free tattoo designs. And don't you forget about searching for those magazines too. All of those are just some of the great places where you can find great designs.

2. Other Enthusiasts

One thing you have to take note is that whenever you go any tattoo shop to be tattooed or was just hanging around there. Try to chat up with these people. These people are also tattoo enthusiasts like you, I'm sure they will have lots of tattoo ideas and designs to share with you. This is especially so if you start sharing some of your designs first and ask them what they think about it. You'll be surprised at how great the people respond your requests.

3. Forums

Just to go any search engines i.e. Yahoo! or Google and type in "free tattoo designs forums" and I'm sure it will come up with lots of search results. You can also try searching those Yahoo! Groups for tattoo enthusiasts. Take a look at them and join them if it only suits you and you are willing to contribute to that forum. You will find many others who will happily share tattoos ideas and designs with you if you just ask.

4. Websites

Now it can be quite hard to find free tattoo designs websites out there, but you can still find them if you are determined enough. As these sites seems to have a uncanny ability to blend into the search results among those paid design sites. Even so, once you find one you can stick to that for some time as it's quite hard to come across one that will provide you with free tattoo designs without you contributing anything.

Well, if you want to really search for free tattoo designs without all the hassles of searching for inspirations through photos, traveling to local libraries, chat up with people even if it is in forums and you want it readily compiled for you maybe in a website so that you can easily print it out if you like it. Then I'm sure you can find them but you just need to search more thoroughly in the internet. Well, that's all for all the places where you can get great looking free tattoo designs.

If you like this information, discover how you can get your hands on a collection of thousands of gorgeous high quality tattoo designs all viewable from your comforts of your home. Remember to also get your free tattoo design bonuses there.

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Fading Tattoo Inks

Part of the attraction of getting a tattoo for some people has been the permanence of the body art that one chooses to place on their skin. If one tattoos a name on their body, it means that that name has permanent meaning for them. Likewise, the designs they choose would be something they would never want to change.

New tattoo ink technologies are threatening to change the whole concept of permanency of tattooing. Although there currently exist many methods of tattoo removal, their difficulty and cost make tattoos effectively permanent for most people. Likewise, older methods of removal, such as surgery may be painful and leave significant scarring. Laser tattoo removal, while usually effective, often requires multiple treatments and can be costly.

One company, Freedom-2, is bringing products to market that will change the paradigm of tattooing. Their ink is based on encapsulating bio-absorbable dyes in polymethylmethacrylate microspheres. The dyes in the ink are already FDA-approved for use in food, cosmetics, and medical devices. The ink is injected into the skin by standard tattooing techniques. At any time when removal of the pigment is desired, a single laser treatment disrupts the encapsulation, allowing the ink to flow out into the tissues and be absorbed. The tattoo then quickly fades without the need for further laser treatments. This ink is not yet available for general use, but has been tested in human subjects, according to the company’s website. They indicate that it will be commercially available in early 2007.

They are also developing tattoo inks that will fade away on a predetermined schedule without the need for any laser treatments at all. The technology behind this is not elucidated, and there is no date of availability listed yet for this type of product.

The main difference between these two products is that the former is a permanent ink that can be removed anytime, while the latter will last a long time but then fade away, even if the owner prefers it to stay.

Tattoo artists may not instantly take to the new inks. The ability to remove a tattoo is not necessarily the foremost consideration when choosing tattoo inks. Some artists believe that tattoos should be permanent, or one is better off not getting a tattoo if he or she is unsure about them. However, some tattoo shops may choose to cater to the less-decisive. Also, it may encourage more experimentation and fanciful designs, if the recipient knows that they can get the tattoo quickly lasered off if they don’t like it. The new ink will likely be significantly more expensive that standard ink, so cost will also be a consideration for artists.

Although a tattoo’s ink may be temporary, there is often scarring left behind from the tattoo needle’s penetration of the skin. Thus a textural image of the tattoo may remain permanently. Even so, the concept of tattoos as purely permanent body art may be replaced by tattoos as fashion. If a tattoo could be instantly removed, some people may choose to periodically change their tattoos as they would their style of clothing.

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