Marigolds make for some of the more interesting and creative flower tattoo designs. Favored for their golden color and association with the sun’s rays, marigolds hold special significance in numerous different cultures.
Marigolds play a massive role in Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos celebration, and they carry deep significance in the Hindu religion. The marigold is also the birth flower of the month of October, creating a special connection with the Zodiac sign Libra.
Read on for some of the most interesting and unique tattoo ideas using this exquisite flower for inspiration.
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1. Marigolds and Skulls Tattoo Design
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An interesting approach that many people have chosen is to incorporate contrasting elements to create more interesting and compelling tattoos. Here, these beautiful flowers are combined with skulls to complete exciting birth flower tattoos.
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Taking a variety of approaches, these freshly inked marigolds display how seemingly disparate subjects can make for perfect tattoos. Skulls are actually well-suited for marigold tattoos thanks to the symbolic meaning they have in Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos celebration.
2. Back and Side Marigold Flower Tattoos
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One of the most important parts of choosing new body art is figuring out where to place it. While marigold tattoos are sure to look great anywhere, the golden yellow flowers can be especially successful when placed on the back or side of the torso. They also work really well as shoulder tattoos.
Marigold tattoos are also a great choice for the opportunity they provide to incorporate different flowers as design elements: these tattoos use roses, chrysanthemums and beneficial insects to create more unique and compelling tattoo designs.
3. Chest, Foot, and Hand Tattoo Design
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As these marigold tattoos demonstrate, these beautiful flowers can be applied successfully to just about any canvas on the body. The hands, feet and chest are just as suitable for your perfect tattoo as the back or legs.
In the hands of a talented artist, these golden yellow flowers are the perfect fit for a hand tattoo and are an interesting departure from more common creative goods such as American traditional flash or Chicano work.
4. Black and Gray Flower Illustration
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While it may seem counter intuitive for a tattoo artist to skip bright colors in drawing up a flower design and use a black and gray, these marigolds offer great examples of how successful this approach can be.
Utilizing shade combinations to create depth and highlight the different textures in drawing delicate flower petals and leaves, these excellent marigold designs make for more interesting and unique birth flower tattoos.
5. Upper Arm Tattoo Ideas
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The upper arm has long been a popular canvas for tattoos thanks to the large size of the area and the prominence of the bicep muscle. These marigold tattoos show off interesting approaches to tattoo flower drawing.
Several of these dream designs uses a loose application of bright colors alongside bold outlines to recreate the effect of watercolor paintings. The watercolor technique is a perfect fit for these golden yellow flowers, as it can add subtlety to the color and create nuance within the flower meaning.
6. Forearm Illustration
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Thanks to the changing attitudes and perceptions about tattoos more people are choosing to get inked on their forearms, where their tattoo art is more visible in daily life.
The marigold tattoos in this gallery provide a broad cross section of styles: everything from American traditional to black and gray are on display here, demonstrating just how versatile these beautiful flowers are.
Whether woman or man, ink placement and different styles of botanical tattoos are opening up from previous stereotypes.
7. Lower Leg
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Many people choose to get tattoos on their lower leg for a few reasons. Tattoos on the calf and ankles provide the wearer greater control of the ink’s visibility, which is a great idea for those working in industries that are not as accepting of ink. These flower tattoos use a variety of styles and utilize bright colors to perfectly capture the beautiful warmth of October’s golden birth flower.
8. Delicate Marigold Tattoo Ideas
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While bold lines have long been a staple of successful tattoos, the modern tattoo artist can create excellent designs that use a much more delicate approach. This is a perfect fit for freshly inked marigolds utilizing both color and black and gray techniques.
These marigold tattoos display a variety of styles to capture the dream like beauty and personality of these charming little flowers and are sure to keep their wearers happy for years to come.
What is the symbolism of marigold flowers?
Marigolds are lovely flowers that hold significance in cultures around the world, notably in Mexico and India.
During the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Mexico, where the dead are believed to visit their living relatives, these golden yellow flowers are said to help guide the spirits to their families’ altars thanks to their bright colors and strong fragrance.
For the Hindus of India, marigolds also hold deep meaning. Often called the “flower of the soul”, Indians use marigolds in most of their religious ceremonies, displaying them as wedding flowers in yellow, gold, as well as funerals and offerings to the gods Ganesh and Laxmi.
The different colors also represent specific traits, with white being associated with purity, golden being the saffron color of divinity and the brightest oranges representing courage.
What is the myth behind marigold flowers?
These golden yellow flowers can also be found in Greek mythology. In the famous story of King Midas and his touch of gold, the ruler’s daughter was named Marigold. After receiving his gift from the god Dionysus, Midas carried on turning everything he could think of to gold, including the flowers in his garden. His daughter was dismayed that the blossoms had lost their fragrance and in an ill-fated attempt to console Marigold, Midas hugged her, unwittingly turning her into gold as well.
His gift had turned into a curse and he begged Dionysus to save his daughter. Midas followed the god’s directions to wash himself of the curse in the Pactolus River and the blessing turned curse was lifted.
Did you love these marigold tattoo examples? Find more ink happiness by clicking the links below for galleries of flower tattoo designs with meaning:
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