Article by Tattoo Star

For millennia Dragons have populated fantasy stories from all over the world. In the modern scientific and technological age, dragons have found their place on the skin of many tattoo lovers. A dragon tattoo can represent many different things. Usually is a sign for strength, vitality and grace but also wisdom, eternity, power. The symbolism behind dragon tattoos is so rich and so different, it is impossible to define one single general meaning for all dragon tattoo designs.In ancient stories dragons were often characterized by an ambivalence of violence and wise gentleness. You could not really say at the beginning of a story whether it would be a good or an evil dragon: a misunderstood, intelligent but frightful animal, or a deadly enemy capable of destroying whole cities with his breath of fire?

Dragons (and also dragon tattoo designs) have always had a particular importance in Chinese cultures. Here dragons are seen in a positive way and considered as protectors against demons and as good luck charms. Dragons also have a symbolic importance in the Ying and Yang conception, bringing strength to the masculine part, the Yang, and connecting concepts like water and fertility to the feminine part, the Ying.The well known Ying and Yang symbol is sometimes depicted with two dragons fighting each other. This wonderful dragon tattoo represents the creative energy of the universe. Similar meaning can be ascribed to the same tattoo symbol depicted with a dragon fighting a tiger. In this case the tiger tattoo design represents the earth and world of the real things, while the dragon represents the hereafter, all that’s beyond the human limits, the transcendental and spiritual part of the universe.

In our culture, dragons are often seen as the last obstacle to be fought and overcome. This way of seeing dragons is translated into beautiful dragon tattoos symbolizing the difficulties that a man has to overcome to reach his goals.

As seen, in many different cultures dragons have different meanings: wise brave animals, trusted friends of mankind or terrible enemies to eliminate. Depending on the style of your dragon tattoo, you could choose a symbol of wisdom and kindness or one of furious and powerful violence and destruction.

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Article by Tattoo Star

November 22, 1986, heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick challenges the young Michael Gerard Tyson. Two rounds after Berbick career as world champion was over. Mike Tyson had become “Iron Mike”, “the baddest man in the world”, one of the strongest boxers in history and youngest heavyweight champion ever.

I have always been fascinated by this man, so strong and so fragile at the same time.

As he still was the unbeatable World Champion, he did not need a tribal tattoo design on his face to scare his opponents.

Maybe this was the reason why in 2003, a tired and old Mike Tyson decided to get a tribal tattoo design on his face – a middle age crisis tattoo?

A few days before his last victorious match against Clifford Etienne, mike Tyson took some time out from training to party in Las Vegas and get his new facial tattoo. A tribal tattoo design which reminds the Maori tattoos style.

Maori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. From their ancient love for tattoos took birth the so called Ta Moko, Maori tattoo art. Mokos are nothing less than tattoos carved with chisels on the face of worthy Maori warriors. Nothing similar has ever appeared in any other civilization. Tyson probably got such a tattoo design on his face, in the attempt of getting his old warrior spirit back.

But even if this attempt was not as successful as he wished, Tyson tattoo designs still are interesting for tattoo lovers. All of them are in some way related to his beliefs or his character and are all of particular importance to Tyson, who sees in them “powerful totems”.

Tyson got his first tattoo design inked on his right forearm in 1979. It shows a dragon, symbol of the ghetto-gang he was a member of. The portrait of the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara has found place on the left side of his abdomen. This is probably the more visible among his tattoo designs, due to his position and size. Another idol of international communism, Mao Tse Tung, is tattooed on his right shoulder.Tyson wants to carry on his body the memories of his spiritual heroes: that’s why, after the two communist leaders, he got the portrait of the less known Arthur Ace.Ace was a popular tennis champion also well known for his efforts to important social causes and founder of Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS. His portrait and the words “days of grace” are tattooed on Tyson’s left shoulder.A piece of skin of Tyson’s huge left forearm is dedicated to Monica Turner, his wife from 1997 to 2003.

I personally consider Tyson to be the greatest boxer ever lived, but I know many would disagree with me on this. Tyson has often been criticised for his lifestyle and behaviours, but I think his tattoos prove he is not just a killing machine, but a man able to think, suffer and dream.

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