Squid Tattoo – Meanings, Symbolism, Designs and Ideas

The introduction of dyes into the skin. This happens in our age with the help of small fine needles. The purpose of tattooing is to create lasting patterns in the skin.

Tattooing is one of the oldest art forms of humanity and has been represented in almost all cultures since earliest times. There are many theories about the origin of the tattoo, but in the end I cannot tell you exactly which original people the tattooing genre is derived from.

The earliest indications of the occurrence of tattoos on the Japanese islands, for example, come from the Japanese Neolithic (the Jononj period). This was about 8,000 to 200 BC.

From about 3,000 BC In the 3rd century BC, engraved patterns were found on torsi, especially the faces of the ceramic figures of the time were decorated with patterns such as strokes, oval lines or curved lines on the cheeks. It is therefore assumed that these are pictures of fertility goddesses.

Finally, you can find traces of early tattooing in Samoa, Polynesia, Micronesia, Borneo, New Zealand as well as in Siberia. In the Scandinavian area the so-called “braiding patterns” were widespread. But to prove that there are also primeval traces of tattooing here, I remind you at this point of the “Ötzi from the ice”. It was found in 1991 near the Austrian Similaun glacier. This find is a more than 5,000-year-old mummy, a Neolithic hunter. This find was not only a sensation for science, but also for the tattoo world, because the “Ötzi” had tattooed lines above the kidneys and on the feet. Also on the inside of his left knee was found a tattooed cross. For example, the early Christians tattooed a lamb, a fish, or a cross on their foreheads or on their forearms. And this despite the fact that the Old Testament forbade the wearing of tattoos.

So you see, somehow, all over the world, but independently of each other, the art of tattooing was already practiced in the old past cultures.

From past cultures to today’s age. Once upon a time, the sailors used to proudly show their tattooed skin. Inspired by the harbors of this world, a souvenir of the respective port city could always be tattooed.

Once tattoos were not welcome, it was always bad or negative and associated. Thanks to the changing times and tolerance of people, today every tattooed person can proudly wear his tattoo.

The tattoo has become a skin art, which is also due to the advancement of technology. For what used to be introduced into the skin using needles and razorblades under mostly unhygienic circumstances is now becoming a work of art thanks to the finest needles, sophisticated coil / rotary machines and advanced color pigments.

Meanings and Symbolism

In every legend, it is said, a grain is truth. In the legend of the giant squid, as we know today, more than a grain is the truth.

On the other hand, there is also a shaken measure of ignorance in the ingredients of most horror stories of many-armed sea monsters awaiting unwary sailors in the depths of the sea.

Squid Tattoo - Meanings, Symbolism, Designs and Ideas

One thing is for sure – the sea, with its unexplored depths, however close it may be, is in some ways further away from us than space. The creatures that are at home in the deep sea, we often know only from the catch of deep-sea fishing and then never alive, because the used to the high water pressure of the deep sea animals in shallower depths as miserable perish, as we, if we without the protective sheath of the diving bell would try to reach these depths.

The legend of the multi-armed sea monster is probably as old as human seafaring. Homer describes in his 7th century BC Odyssey Skylla and Charybdis, who threaten seafaring in a strait. If you come too close, the Charybdis pulls the ship into its gullet, otherwise the Skylla catches the sailors from the deck and devours them. This Skylla describes Homer as a sea monster stuck with his abdomen in the rock. She has many brains on her head, catching not only sailors, but also sea creatures within reach of her arms. The expert reminds this description remotely of an octopus, which remains hidden like the Skylla with the abdomen in a crevice and extends only with the tentacles in the surrounding water to procure food. In contrast to the Skylla, the octopuses occurring in Homer’s home waters are in the maximum case one meter in size and by no means so large that they could threaten a ship or its inmates.

Centuries after Homer, Pliny the Elder, shortly after Christ’s birth, describes how a gigantic “polyp” with ten-meter-long arms in Carteia, Spain, plundered the fishponds near the coast. The guards killed the monster, which had spread a very unpleasant odor. The term “polyp”, which Pliny used for the animal, refers to a many-armed animal. Today, this name is used only on one generation of the hollow animals, the sedentary (sessile) form of jellyfish.

The term octopus goes back to Norwegian. In the 17th century, the Swedish bishop Olaus Magnus describes a one-mile-long cephalopod, which he calls the Kraken. The description goes back to descriptions of Norwegian fishermen, whom Olaus Magnus met on his travels in the Scandinavian countries.

He writes of monstrous fish, whose shape is terrible, whose square head has long horns, like a tree roots, and whose eyes are rigid and cruel, a cubit in size, and of a deep red color. It seems likely that if Olaus Magnus had not seen an octopus himself, at least the fishermen who told him were eyewitnesses. The report includes a size description of the octopus of ten cubits in circumference and an arm length of another 10 cubits. If one assumes that an Elle was regionally between 50 and 80 cm, then the Olaus’sche Krake must have been up to 16 meters large.

According to Olaus Magnus, other Scandinavian naturalists – Hans Egede, bishop of Greenland, and the Norwegian bishop Pontoppidan – reported about the Kraken. In his natural history of Norway, Pontoppidan writes of the octopus, which fishermen find at a depth of about 150 meters. The Kraken’s back is up to one and a half miles in circumference, the size of a small island. That’s two and a half kilometers. That would mean a body length of about 700 meters! To date, there have been no signs that there is anywhere a known creature of this size. It appears that Pontoppidan or his sources have shown considerable artistic creativity here.

Today you know giant squid. It is known that the species of the genus Enteroctopus represented on the earth reach a maximum span of 7.5 meters (as about 3.75 meters arm length). Although there are descriptions of giant squid, which are to reach 9 meters span, but the relevant sources consider these measures unrealistic.

Therefore, there is much to suggest that the term octopus is ambiguous, especially in German, because the measurements described by Olaus Magnus speak for a giant squid and not for an octopus. Above all, there are no giant octopus in the North Atlantic, but only in the North and South Pacific and the South

Design and Ideas

When it comes to design of the squid tattoo, you can really let your imagination run wild. There are many different designs you can go for, but it still important to add something of your own in the tattoo design to make it more personal.

Squid tattoos can be very complicated, especially if you choose to go with a realistic representation. Squids have many small details and to capture all of them, you will need someone who is a professional and someone who knows its job well. Squid tattoos can also be done in a cartoon style, and these tattoos are perfect if your plan is to get a small tattoo for your ankle or wrist.

However, if you want to go for a bigger and realistic tattoo, make sure you choose a spot with a lot of room so you can create a beautiful and realistic tattoo. Consulting your tattoo artist is the best thing you can do. Squids can go perfectly well with other maritime creatures and motifs, so choose few of them to create a cohesive image. You can let your imagination go wild with this motif.

Also, squids are closely related to Krakens, and we all know their reputation. If your goal is to get something scary and memorable, then squids can be a perfect choice for that. Find yourself a talented tattoo artist who is going to bring the image you imagined to life and give you a perfect design. As far as ideas go, they are simply endless with squids since they are such interesting and unusual creatures. You can tattoo them creatively as cartoons or go for a more realistic representation. In both cases, the squids definitely leave an impression on your body and will be an eye-catching tattoo.

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