‘Butterflies
and skulls’ – the favorites of many tattoo subjects.
Traditionally butterflies represent Birth and skulls represent Death, so together they represent the circle of life.
However, there are many other interpretations of both of these symbols.
Butterflies are living symbols of the precariousness of nature and beauty, but also icons of hope, and the ability to adapt in a fast-changing world.
Since time immemorial, visual artists have been fascinated by the ephemerality of butterflies – their brief summertime appearances, their capability to metamorphose from caterpillars.
It is an act that has long been seen as a symbol of beauty breaking free from baseness.
In the 21st Century, it can serve as a reminder that we still have the potential to change and survive – to take a stand.
Skulls too, are icons of hope.
They are associated with the ability to defeat the odds, and overcome obstacles.
Everything
in life moves in cycles, and endings are inevitable occurrences that are a part
of that process and, in this sense, skulls symbolize the start of the new cycle
and the birth of new life.
A skull is a reminder that everything in life is transient, and that we have the will to choose how we live it – to choose to take a stand.