Tattoo is a motif which is introduced into the skin with ink or other coloring agents. The color is usually stung with the help of a tattoo machine – depending on the desired effect by one or more needles in the second layer of skin and thereby drawn a picture or a text.
Recent surveys have shown that currently in the world about 10 percent of the population has at least one tattoo. By contrast, up to 23 percent of young people aged 16 to 29 are thinking about it. So a lot of people have tattoos or like them. This body jewelry is more popular than ever and is used regardless of social status and education.
Whether the delicate rose on the ankle, the snake or the martial skull on the upper arm, on the stomach, the legs or on the buttocks: people around the world have paintings on their body. Many tattoo not only figures, but also the images of the loved ones on the back and / or their wedding date on the forearm for example.
While some trend researchers already believed that body art is slowly starting to fade, experts predict that this fashion is only just beginning to take off. The desire for tattoos, which once raged on the biceps of sailors, is not only in vogue with artists and creative people. Even clerks love roses, flowers, lion heads or abstract strokes on their bodies. No doubt, the tattoo wearer of our day comes from the middle of society.
These fans are, in spite of many popular opinions, neither mostly unemployed nor do they belong to the group of “losers”, i.e. to the people who simply “do nothing in their lives”. Whether automotive mechatronics engineer, teacher, housewife or doctor: the trend researchers could not account for a connection with school education, occupation and income.
This cannot be explicitly assigned to any culture. It is rather to be assumed that this art took a different development in different religions of the world. Often, tattoos had a ritual and / or religious significance.
Sometimes, however, they have been and still are, to this day, just an expression of fashion trends. This art has been closely linked to the culture and the lives of people for eternity. It probably evolved independently of each other in different cultures around the world. Even the people of the Stone Age, the tattoo already served as a means of embellishment, to deter the enemies or to implement traditional customs and rites.
Also in Chile, some 7,000-year-old mummified people were found with tattoos on their feet and hands.
Likewise, the Scythians, an Asian equestrian people, had already discovered their love for the body drawings, as finds clearly prove. With various indigenous peoples in Polynesia and Micronesia, tattooing could be ascribed a ritual significance very early on. The preference for this decoration had also affected the Christians.
Although tattooing among Christians was undesirable according to the Bible, early Christian sects were nevertheless stung by religious symbols and signs. In the Middle Ages, tattoos were also common in Europe, and tattooing was also used on some Celtic tribes.
Meanings and Symbolism
Even if it sounds like an incredible myth: Swans actually stay true to their partner for a lifetime – and once a pair of swans have found themselves, it can only separate the death of one of the two partners. Perhaps the secret of this lifelong love is that swans outside the mating season are loners.
The animals prefer arctic in the summer, but temperate climates in winter – therefore, swans are mainly represented in the northern hemisphere. They love shallow lakes and slow-flowing rivers, where they can roam with their long necks in search of food. In Norse mythology, all the swans go back to the pair that lives at the root of the World Tree Yggdrasil at the Well of Urd – the water in it is so sacred that it immediately turns everything that is touched by it into radiant white. Also the fortified Valkyries are often represented in swan form. And in the legends of Ireland, heroes and even gods are turning into flying swans.
The power animals accompany us all our lives. However, there are force animals that accompany us only in certain stages of life and show us the right way. Every human being has his power animals that are loyal to him, whether for a limited time or for life.
- power of love
- loyalty
- transformation
These are the three key words that best represent the quality of Power Animal Swan. Swans seek out a partner for life, defend fervently both their offspring and their territory, and in their adolescence turn from gray teenagers into real beauties. When the swan comes to us as spirit beings, we can learn these precious and spiritual insights from him:
Swans care for their offspring in a loving and affectionate way, or engage in close engagement with their partner on the water – Power Animal Swan points out our innermost feelings that we should allow to feel love and trust with all our strength and inspire us with this power allow.
Swans stay loyal not only to their partner for a lifetime, but also to the nest built together from aquatic plants – Power Animal Swan shows us how loyal we are to our partner, but also to our family or friends. Especially in difficult times power animal swan urges us to live our attachment to our neighbors also through helpful deeds.
In their youth swans transform from average-looking waterfowl into the proverbially beautiful swan: the challenge to us to find new beauty through true change and to surrender to the miracle of life, to let go of the old and to immerse into the new.
When we encounter the power animal Swan, it enriches our lives with grace, the ability to love and to stand up wholeheartedly for those who really mean everything to us.
Design and Ideas
Swans stand for beauty, elegance and love since time immemorial. But other attributes are also attributed to them: they are considered intrepid protectors and even aggressive aggressors. No wonder, then, that the white duck birds are a popular tattoo motif.
What a beautiful sight! Two white swans in duet moving like synchronized swimmers; draw their circles on the water, move away from each other, and then approach again. They caress each other and wrap their necks around each other. In the early spring, from March to April, courtship time and even for less savvy bird spots is the best opportunity to observe the graceful courtship dance of the swans in the early morning hours on lakes or in slightly flowing waters.
Above all, the mute swans that are well identifiable by a bulge above the beak are the largest of all native species. As a youngster with gray-brown plumage, the swarms with the sexual maturity of about three years change their color into a bright white.
And also the beak gets its typical orange color. The animals also owe their elegant appearance to their usually S-shaped neck, which is another typical feature of the mute swan. This neckline looks especially nice when the couple paddle frontally to each other and the two curved necks together form a heart. This is not a cheesy idea, that’s what goat couples really do. One cannot represent symbolic love.
And for loyalty, these magnificent animals are still standing. If a couple has found each other, it usually stays together for a lifetime. The brooding takes over the female alone, the young are hatched, but they are supplied by both parents. Until the offspring is self-employed, caution is required for humans. The adult birds, weighing up to twenty kilograms, sometimes have a wing span of more than two meters and cannot stand it when paddlers and swimmers enter their territory and come too close to the offspring. As serious as the males fill the role in courtship, so they behave as protectors of the offspring. In the breeding season in March and April and in leading the offspring from May to July, they react aggressively to potential danger. The threatening gestures of the bird should be taken seriously: the wings spread high, neck stretched, he swims hissing at the invaders. Even attacks from the air are reported.
Luckily the animal concentrates on the paddle with the rower, but it is also reported by attacks on the head. A blow with the wing can knock a person out.
Their beauty and their proud appearance have always inspired people. In many cultures swans are given a special role. From Celtic to Germanic or Norse mythology, from India to Finland: Swans have a special role and a strong symbolic power. The most famous story comes from Greek mythology: God father Zeus takes the form of a swan and seduces Leda. Numerous painters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Peter Paul Rubens or even Paul Cezanne took up the theme and created works that highlight the erotic nature of this seduction. But despite these sexual allusions in the historical swan symbolism, the animal stands for purity also because of its white plumage.
A musical monument to the swan composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky with the ballet “Swan Lake” (1877). Michel Fokine’s three-minute dance solo “The Dying Swan” for the prima ballerina Anna Pawlowa from 1905 is another highlight of international ballet history: the dance-like representation of a swan that swans gracefully is considered one of the most demanding dance roles and has even become proverbial. The phrase “He plays the dying swan” refers to someone who suffers particularly theatrically. The term “swan song” has also become naturalized in the usage of the last work of a musician or poet, but also for the last speech of a politician. The term goes back to Greek mythology, according to which swans sing again before death.
