8 Most Popular Tattoo Designs of the Decade

The most popular tattoo styles are tribal, flowers, stars, crosses, butterflies, fairies, eternity symbols and dragons.

True tribal tattooing has a long history. These tattoos traditionally consisted of black ink and intricate lines heavy with symbolic meaning. Often, young men were tattooed to mark the passage from boyhood into adulthood, while women were tattooed to signify that they were ready to be married. Today, the techniques and significance of tribal tattoos are very different today. Most favor tribal tattoos because of their striking appearance.

Flower tattoos can be far more than just pretty, benign pictures. Flowers can also embody of nature, maturity, birth, life and rebirth. Specific flowers have come to represent varied cultures and beliefs. In Asia, the lotus flower has tremendous spiritual significance. The lotus figures prominently in the Creation Myths of Indian and China, and Buddha is said to have risen at the center of a Lotus Blossom.

In the West, the rose is a symbol of pure love popular with both men and women. A tattoo of a rose with prominent thorns is a reminder that love is not without risk. The rounded, cup-like shape of the flower has been long been seen as a symbol of the feminine. Flowers are also ideal for those hoping for a large variety of color choices.

The star is often considered a symbol of hope, but their nocturnal connotation can also represent the dark or the unknown. Stars can signify countless things depending on the number, color and orientation of the points. The most well known star designs are the Pentagram (five-pointed star), the Nautical Star (five-pointed star), the Hexagram or Star of David (six-pointed star) and the nonagram (nine-pointed star).

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