Sparrow Tattoos: Design, Meaning and Symbolism

Sparrow Tattoos

Sparrow tattoo designs are a classic tattoo that has been very popular for many centuries. These great tattoos have a lot of symbolism behind them and with the bright colors and vast array of designs can make a wonderful tattoo.

Tattoos and the meaning behind individual tattoos are always a matter of debate. It depends on the person wearing the tattoo more then anything else as the person who got the tattoo has some reason and thought behind it. This is further complicated because some tattoos have a very long history and the meaning and symbolism behind them has been changed over time as different groups of people and people in diffierent locations ascribe different meaning to the tattoos. So for example what one group of sailors might assign as a meaning to a tattoo in England would be very different in the United States. So tattoos and the meaning behind them is different depending on the country, person and time period.

However there are some pretty common uses of sparrow tattoos over the history of tattoo art and therefore some common meanings behind them.

Sparrows are a small, fast bird that lives close to land since they do not fly very far. Thus the first meaning or significance of the sparrow tattoo came from sailors. Sailors orginated most of the classic tattoo designs and sparrow tattoos are no different. Sparrow were seen as a symbol of good luck. Since they flew close to land then a sailor would know he was close to land once he saw a sparrow flying by the ship. This was a good sign as it meant a safe end to a dangerous journey.

Over time sailors started ascribing certain meaning behind differnt sparrow colors and tattoo designs. Most of these have been lost and obscured over time. However, it is known that a person would get a sparrow tattoo after making a long significant journey for example after crossing the equato or other such long journey.

Today sparrow tattoos have taking on a variety of different meanings. Again depending on the time and place a tattoo canmean a very different thing.

Yet like in history certain aspects of how sparrow live have given credence to certain meanings and symbols behind them as tattoos. For example sparrows typically only mate with one other bird and stay with each other for their entire life. This is not typically of many animals and esepcially many other specieis of birds as they will more often mate with different mates. This has lead sparrows to become a symbol for loyalty. So one significant meaning behind a sparrow tattoo can be loyalty to a loved one of just loyalty in general.

Since sparrows can fly great distances they are often thought of as being free. Therefore sparrow tattoos can also symbolize freedom. Thus many people who have spent time in jail get sparrow tattoos to represent their freedom from jail.

Some people also get sparrow tattoos on their fists. Sparrows are very fast flying birds and the beliefe is that sparrows onthe fist will help have a fast punch in a fight or fast fists. Therefore some people get sparrow tattoos on their fists.