Star Tattoos

The star tattoo in the picture is a very well done design that depicts a shooting star on this women’s stomach. Shooting stars represent faith and hope but all star tattoos have some sort of meaning. Star tattoos are, and always have been, one of the most popular tattoo designs. It seems as if everyone today who is tattooed is sporting some kind of star tattoo or, at the very least, has considered one. What makes star tattoos so popular? Once regulated to sailors, the star tattoo, specifically the nautical star, had a very profound meaning. In the 1940s and 1950s another group adopted them and gave them another meaning. Getting a star tattoo today isn’t so much about meaning but about being one of the cool kids. Star tattoos have become that much of a fad. But where did it all start? Originally sailors depended on the North Star as a navigational aid. Five pointed stars, symbolizing the North Star, found their way onto early maps and compasses before finding their way onto the arms of sailors for protection and guidance to return them home safely. The Irish have always used them to symbolize good health.

These star tattoos mean so many different things to so many different people that it’s hard to get a bead on them when you see them. It is generally accepted that most star tattoos have their roots in the person seeing themselves as some sort of star on the rise and their tattoo is to signify that, but I think it is more of that thing that draws us all to the stars. That overwhelming feeling that maybe the answers to all things are out there somewhere, if we could only go an find out. And so we fantasize about traveling among the stars, though it is very unlikely that will happen any time in the next one hundred years. We simply do not have the propulsion systems to cover such great distances within a persons life time.

The start tattoos also stand for shooting stars, as in it’s time to make a wish and hope that it comes true. And perhaps that is the reason some decide to get star tattoos. Perhaps there is a part of them that is wishing for something that they secretly hope will come true one day in the future. And that is the thing about dreams. After all, you must be able to dream of doing something before you can actually do it. So we would be no where as a society without dreaming and that makes this a healthy thing.