Memorial Tattoos and Their Meanings: A Tribute Through Ink

There are many ways to mark the loss of a person you love. While more traditional memorial options include things like memorial gardens, plaques, naming a rose after your loved one, or creating a piece of memorial jewellery, there are more alternative options available.

Memorial tattoos are growing in popularity as tattoos become more accepted and mainstream. While a tattoo may have once made you stand out, it’s now the norm to be adorned with ink. You’re more likely to stand out for having no tattoos.

With this in mind, we’re looking at the role of memorial tattoos in modern society. If you’re thinking about tribute ink, it’s obviously important that you think carefully about what design you want to get and also think about the placement. While tattoo removal is an option if you get this wrong, it’s far better to get it right the first time.

In this guide, we’re sharing some of our favourite tips for helping you to choose the right tattoo for your tribute. But first, let’s delve into the history of this practice.

History of memorial tattoos

For as long as humans have been poking their skin with ink, they’ve been creating memorial tattoos. In ancient cultures, body markings would make up part of the mourning rituals. Some cultures also use tattoos to create a visual map of a person’s life, marking beginnings and endings with tattoos.

Tattoos are often highly symbolic. They are a painful ritual that can help to focus the mind on the loss. The very act of getting the tattoo becomes a part of the grieving process and a physical representation of the emotional pain suffered.

In modern times, tattoos are used to mark the loss of loved ones in many different ways. They are very common in the military, where soldiers will observe the loss of their fellow soldiers as a display of camaraderie. While tattoos may have once been used in identification in the military, since WWII, they have been adopted as a form of self expression and as a form of tribute to those lost.

Popular memorial tattoo ideas

If you’re thinking about tribute ink as a way to remember a loved one, you need to think carefully about the image, placement and size. If you don’t have any tattoos yet, it’s a good idea to choose something small over a full sleeve, for example. If you already have multiple tattoos, you’ll need to think about how to add to your collection with your memorial design. The following are some of the most popular memorial tattoo designs:

• Roman numerals – these are often used for birth dates and death dates, offering a more visually appealing representation of these important dates.
• Angel wings – these are a very common representation of loss in tattoos. Large wings on the back are commonly seen alongside decorative script names as a tribute to a loved one.
• Butterflies – the butterfly is a common representation of the spirit of a person visiting us after death. This is why it’s such a popular motif for tribute tattoos.
• Handwriting – tattooing words in the person’s handwriting is a very common tribute to a loved one. You might take something from a beloved handwritten note left before their death.
• Birds – like butterflies, birds also represent returning spirits. The cardinal is a popular tribute bird that is commonly used as a tribute to a loved one.
• Anchors and hearts – traditional tattoo designs of anchors and hearts are commonly associated with sailors, but they have now been adopted as a memorial tattoo design, particularly for the loss of a parent.

These are just the most common tribute tattoos, and people can quite obviously pick anything they like. It doesn’t have to be meaningful or widely recognised as a tribute tattoo – as long as it has meaning for you. This is often far more meaningful than choosing something from the wall of a tattoo parlour simply because it’s associated with memorials.

Size and placement

As mentioned above, if you don’t yet have any tattoos, you’re likely to want to choose something small and compact. Popular placements include the wrist, inner elbow, top of the arm and shoulder blade.

If you work in a role where your tattoos need to be covered, you might opt for a tattoo on your torso, so you’re less likely to have this visible at work. Those in more flexible careers can place their tattoo wherever they like – the only limitation will be your own pain threshold.

Those with existing tattoos will need to find a place for the tribute tattoo that works well with the surrounding tattoos. It’s common to want to weave the ideas together and you might choose a filler piece to link the ideas together. You could also branch out and tattoo part of your body not yet touched by ink.

Tattooing with ashes

You may have heard about the possibility of adding the ashes to tattoo ink and including this in your design. This is made possible due to the high temperatures during cremation that leaves the ashes sterile.

That said, you’ll want to go to a reputable tattoo parlour with experience in this practice, as there is still some risk involved in placing cremation ashes in your tattoo ink. This is the most extreme form of memorial tattoo, and many people prefer to stick to a simple memorial design and then create a piece of jewellery from the ashes.

A note on tattoo removal

Tattoo removal is more common than ever before, but it’s something you’ll want to avoid. You’re far less likely to want to get a memorial tattoo removed, but if you choose a design that doesn’t stand the test of time, you might want to have it covered or removed and renewed.

If you’re worried about the possibility of having to have the design  removed in the future, you should consider sticking to a purely black design. Black ink responds the best to tattoo removal lasers and will be broken down and removed by the body far more effectively than coloured inks.