For many clients walking into your tattoo studio, the art that you’re about to ink into their skin has some kind of meaning. It could symbolise an important event in their life, or be a statement about their personality – it could even be a way to remember a lost loved one. However, it’s not just the art that could have meaning – the location of the tattoo can be meaningful, too. So, if you’re faced with a client who knows what they want to get, but they don’t know where, alongside advising them which areas might hurt more or less, you can suggest...
The heart has been symbolic of love, passion and emotion for centuries – so, if it’s a subject that means a lot to you, you might say that it’s close to your heart. By placing a tattoo on your chest, you make that symbolism literal, and instantly express just how much the subject of your artwork means to you.
If you’re particularly open about a belief, and make it part of your public persona, it’s often said that you wear that belief on your sleeve. The phrase is thought to originate from medieval jousts – knights would wear the colours of the lady they supported tied around their sleeve. So, if you’re looking at a piece of ink that expresses such an important belief, putting it right there on your arm could be a good way to go.
What about art that represents something absolutely fundamental about you – a belief or a person that keeps you grounded, keeps you balanced and makes you you? Choosing to put tattoos on your feet can make a powerful symbolic statement: that this is something you’ve chosen to make part of your personal foundations.
The back or shoulder is a great location for art which represents something or someone you can always rely on, with absolute certainty. The friends you can turn to even if you’ve not spoken for years, the beliefs that have sustained you all your life. If you’ve got that kind of trust in the subject of your art, you don’t need to see it every day, and you can simply enjoy the knowledge that it/they will always have your back, literally.