Girls tattoos, tattoo styles, tattoo artists and tattoo shops: Grim Reaper Tattoos

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Grim Reaper Tattoos � Good, Bad or Neutral?

Some people think that Death is saddened by human suffering and reaps the souls of those dying in order to relieve their pain. In this case, an Angel of Death rather than the diabolical Grim Reaper will be the main character of the tattoo. Anyway, this is not a widespread conception and consequently there are only few tattoo-designs on this theme. In these tattoos the Angel of Death is portrayed with an earnest or saddened facial expression.

Other people think that Death is only a psychopomp. Psychopomps - from the Greek word "psuchopompos", literally meaning the "guide of souls" - are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply to provide a safe passage. Because Death has no feelings and simply does his job as he has been eternally damned to do, his face appears expressionless or neutral in tone.

However, the most popular grim reaper tattoos are those of evil nature. These tattoos feature Death taking souls for pleasure as he reveals an evil smile, laughs or gloriously stands over his trophies (human skulls and bones).

Many grim reaper tattoos are created using only black ink and intricate shading to make various shades of grey; however, monotone tattoos are not for everyone. On the other hand, if you decide for a coloured tattoo, you should inform yourself about tattoo colours and tattoo inks, because there is no such thing as "universally-good-tattoo-colours"; in fact, when you decide for a certain colour for your tattoo, in the first place you have to consider your skin tone. Besides that, remember that some tattoo colours are difficult to maintain and they have the tendency to fade faster than others (in this post you might find out some useful information about this subject). Anyway, if you like coloured tattoos and you really want to incorporate some vibrant colours into your Grim Reaper tattoo, here are some suggestions that might help you:

Blue and cyan are probably the most common colours used in the Grim Reaper tattoos, excepting, of course, black and grey. You can use blue and cyan to fill with color the schyte's / sword's blade, the night sky, the clouds and the moon, the mist (if the Grim Reaper appears surrounded by mist) and even the Death's robe.
Brown: one could hardly find another colour that suits a Death tattoo. Because brown is the colour of the wood, there are lots of elements which can be filled with this colour: crosses, coffins, dead trees, old books and papyri, etc. Anyway, a brown tattoo isn't appropriate for any type of skin, so you'd better ask the tattooer before choose the brown colour for your tattoo.
Red: a powerful and violent colour, red is the colour of fire and blood, so it is associated with war and violent death, danger, strength, power, anger, etc. There are many elements which can be coloured in red in a Grim Reaper tattoo: the Death's eyes; the flowers (the red roses, as a symbol of the ephemeral are very common in Death tattoos); the Grim Reaper's robe; the drops of blood dripping down the Death's scythe.
Green (especially the so-called "poison green" or the pale-green): when Death is depicted as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (as mentioned in the Christian Bible) Death is riding a pale-green horse
Purple: This color is commonly associated with royalty. Death is sometimes portrayed as the King of the Underworld, so you can use this color for the Death's robe.
Silver: the blade of the Death's scythe (or the blade of the sword, if the Death is depicted as the Angel of Death).
Yellow and orange: these two colours are not so popular in the Death tattoos. Anyway, there are some elements which can be filled with orange and yellow: thunders, flames (the Flames of Hell); sometimes Death is riding a fire-horse; the fire in the Reaper�s eyes; the Moon; the light of the Death's lantern.

The most common elements in the Death tattoos are, without any doubt, the weapons (for the obvious reason that they are used for killing people).
The scythe is, by far, the most popular choice when it comes to a Grim Reaper tattoo. The scythe can symbolize the cutting of negative energies or influences. Also, as a harvesting tool, it can symbolize hope and prosperity. It can represent the moment of death, when a scythe is said to cut a silver thread. The scythe has a long handle, indicating that it can reach anywhere.

Death tattoo: Death carrying a little baby

Death tattoo: Death is portrayed as a young woman holding a scythe

skeleton tattoo design / Death tattoo / tribal tattoo

Death tattoo: a skeleton praying to Death. If you like this tattoo design you can find it in a larger format on my web site, www.seiza.ro

However, when the Death is portrayed as the Death Angel, the scythe is usually (but not necessarily) replaced by a sword. The sword can be a short, simple, sword (similar to the roman Gladius) or a highly-decorated sword.

Death tattoo covering the shoulder and the upper arm: Grim Reaper portrayed as a winged skeleton

Angel of Death tattoo: the Angel of Death is holding a highly decorated sword

Without being very popular, many other medieval weapons can be seen in the Death tattoos: spears, lances and javelins (these weapons can be seen in the Angel of Death tattoos or in the tattoos which depict Death as a medieval knight), knives and daggers (very common in the Skulls tattoo designs), bows and arrows, etc.

Grim Reaper portrayed as an archer / bowman

Increasingly popular are the fire-guns: usually handguns - derringers, old-fashioned revolvers (very common in the Mexican Mafia tattoos and in the Skulls tattoos), semi-automatic pistols and machine pistols (very common in the gang / prison tattoos) but also various long guns (like shotguns or sniper rifles).

gangsta tattoo: Grim Reaper pointing an old-fashioned revolver

Gangsta tattoo: Grim Reaper pointing a revolver. This tattoo was drawn by Peter Coinin Jr., a tattoo artist who works at the Beauty Mark Tattoo, 3356 East Main Street Waterbury, Connecticut. If you like this tattoo and you want to buy it you can send an email at this mail-address: beautymarktattoo@yahoo.com or you can visit their web-page

skull and guns tattoo covering a men's chest

a very popular combination: guns, roses and a skull

Death tattoo: a skull, two pistols and several gunshot wounds

skull tattoo covering a man's chest: a skull and two crossing revolvers surrounded by several gunshot wounds

Death tattoo: Angel of Death portrayed as a sniper

a vision modern of the Angel of Death: Angel of Death portrayed as a sniper

Death tattoo: Grim Reaper portrayed as a sniper

a vision modern of the Grim Reaper: Grim Reaper portrayed as a sniper

a very popular tattoo theme: skulls and guns

gangsta-style Death tattoo: Grim Reaper holding a semi-automatic pistol

gangsta tattoo design: a skeleton holding a modern semi-automatic pistol

There are several animals which are often depicted in the Grim Reaper tattoo-designs.

The most common of them is, by far, the Death's black horse. Despite the fact that initially (in the book of the Apocalypse) the Death is described as riding a pale horse, many tattoo artist choose to depict the Reaper riding a black horse (possibly due to the traditional interpretation of the color black representing famine, decay and death.) Another very common tattoo-motif is the Death riding a skeleton horse.

Death tattoo on the back: Death riding his horse

Sometimes, Grim Reaper is depicted accompanied by a dog:
1. The Black Dog from the British folklore. The black dog is essentially a nocturnal apparition, often said to be associated with the Devil or a Hellhound. Its appearance was regarded as a portent of death. It is generally supposed to be larger than a normal dog, and often has large, glowing eyes.
2. Cerberus - the three-headed dog which guards the gates of the Underworld, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping. Cerberus appears especially when Grim Reaper is depicted as a lord of the Underworld. Usually, in these tattoos Grim Reaper is depicted sitting on a throne decorated with skulls and human bones; Cerberus is sitting near the throne.
3. A new trend in the Grim Reaper tattoos is to replace the old-fashioned mythological dogs with Pit Bulls and Rottweilers.

Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld

Birds which are usually seen as bad omens that foretell of death like crows and ravens. Crows and ravens have been long time associated with death, sorcery, evil lords, haunted castles, etc.

Venomous snakes - the old symbol of pure evil is sometimes present in Grim reaper tattoos, but more often snakes are present in the skull tattoos (which have a slightly different meaning than the Grim reaper tattoos).

Increasingly popular some butterflies (especially the moths), bugs, spiders, etc. can occur in a Death tattoo.

Lower back tattoo: a Death's Head Hawk Moth

Very often, various symbols of the relentless flow of time (like hourglasses, watches, sundials, old pendulum clocks, timepieces, horologes) are included in the Death tattoo designs. The presence of the time-related symbols is a reminder that the time is running out and the life is slipping away.

Among these, the most popular is the traditional symbol of mortality - the Hourglass.

The image of the hourglass, sometimes with the addition of metaphorical wings, is a symbol of the human life's fleeting, and that the "sands of time" will run out for every human life. The Hourglass also represents the belief that death is not the end, but rather the beginning of something new, as the hourglass can be turned to start over. The hourglass is also a symbol of the patience (the symbol of Death patiently waiting for every human being).

This design often uses the hourglass as the focal point in the tattoo. The hour glass design can be made to look almost as menacing as the Grim Reaper.

Death tatoo / Grim Reaper tattoo / hourglass tattoo

Death's hourglass tattoo / Grim Reaper's hourglass tattoo - if you like this image you can find it on my web site, seiza.ro

Death and the standing nude woman; reverse copy after Sebald Beham; Death as a winged skeleton standing behind a nude whole-length female figure in frontal view, grabbing her wrists; in the lower-right corner can be seen an hourglass.

A Grim Reaper tattoo design is often combined with a variety of other design elements in order to make a truly unique tattoo design. The number of these design-elements is very large (up to several hundreds) and for this reason even their mere enumeration is an extremely difficult task. In this post I will attempt a brief overview of the most popular elements which can be seen in a Death tattoo.

1. Skulls and skeletons are probably the most common elements which can occur in a Death tattoo; sometimes Death himself / herself is depicted as a skeleton carrying a scythe. Anyway, a skull tattoo can have a different meaning than a Grim Reaper tattoo: triumph, anarchy, white race supremacy, etc (read more here).

Death tattoo on the leg: Grim Reaper holding a skull

Grim Reaper holding a human skull

2. Symbols of the inexorable flow of time: hourglasses, watches, sundials, old pendulum clocks, timepieces, horologes, etc.

Death tattoo covering the shoulder and the arm: Grim Reaper holding a timepiece

Death tattoo - Grim Reaper holding an watch - a symbol of the inexorable flow of time

3. Objects related to the culture of death: crosses (especially gothic and celtic crosses), candles, and tombstones.

Death tattoo covering the shoulder and the arm: Death in a graveyard

4. Animals: the Death's horse, the Black Dog, Cerberus, venomous snakes, birds which are usually seen as bad omens that foretell of death like ravens and crows, some insects (especially the moths).

Death riding his / her horse

5. Weapons: the most common is, of course, the famous Grim Reaper scythe, but many other weapons appear as well: swords, spears, lances, javelins, knives, daggers and even modern guns

gangsta tattoo: Death holding a gun

6. Objects related to magic and alchimy: orbs, magic compasses, magic crystal ball (a reminder of the fact that Death can see every single corner of the world), the five pointed star, old magic books or papyruses.

Grim Reaper holding a magic orb

7. Latin maxims and aphorisms: Memento Mori (Remember your mortality, Remember you must die or Remember you will die), Sic Transit Gloria Mundi (Thus passes the glory of the world), Carpe Diem (Seize the day), Ubi sunt...? (Where are...?) or Ubi nunc...? (Where now...?) - both of them are shortened variants of the Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt? Where are those who were before us?)

Dance of Death tattoo

8. Fate-symbols: dices, playing cards, Tarot cards

Death tattoo: Grim Reaper playing dices (probably the stake of the game is someone's life)

Death tattoo: Death depicted on a playing card. If yoy like this tattoo design you can find it in a larger format (600 x 500 px) on my website, www.seiza.ro

9. Symbols of power: thrones, highly decorated swords, chains, royal crowns, rings, lightning strokes

Death tattoo: Death wearing a royal crown

10. Nature elements (these elements occur especially in the large tattoos): dead trees (very common in a Death tattoo), the Moon, mist, clouds, dark waters, swamps, lightning strokes

Grim Reaper tattoo on the shoulder and arm

dead trees are a very common element in the Grim Reaper tattoos

11. Elements associated with the Underworld / Hell: flames (the flames of Hell), thrones decorated with human skulls and bones, demons and monsters, the five pointed star. These elements occur very frequent in the so-called satanic tattoos

Lord of the Underworld: Death on the throne

Grim Reaper - lord of the Underworld

12. Other elements: handlamps (used to see in the dark), flowers (the symbol of ephemerality), hearts, scales (as a symbol of equity, justice and impartiality, as well as a symbol of the divine will).

Death tattoo: the presence of the flowers is a symbol of the human life's ephemerality

There are a variety of different ways that the Grim Reaper can be portrayed as a tattoo symbol. Most Grim Reaper tattoo designs portray the Reaper in a long black robe with his famous long scythe. The Grim Reaper can be shown holding his scythe in a variety of different positions, such as the front or over his shoulder. Due to the length of the robe, only certain parts of the Reaper are usually shown. Skeleton hands are usually seen holding the long scythe. Mostly, the legs are not visible and the Grim Reaper is depicted floating at some distance above the ground (occasionally surrounded by some green or blue mist). The face of the Grim Reaper is usually portrayed as a skeleton skull, with an evil grin and burning eyes. However, some Grim Reaper tattoos show the Grim Reaper as "faceless".

grim reaper / skeleton tattoo on the arm

Grim reaper tattoo - the most common representation of the Grim Reaper: a skeleton wearing a flowing black cloak and carrying a scythe; the skeleton has an evil grin on his face

faceless grim reaper tattoo / angel tattoo

faceless Death

floating Grim Reaper carrying a young girl

floating Grim Reaper; the legs are not visible

Sometimes, the Grim Reaper is depicted riding his legendary pale (or sometimes black) horse. This reference is from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as mentioned in the Christian Bible. Each horseman is named after the power he represents. The fourth horseman - the Death - is described as riding a pale horse. Sometimes the Greek word �chloros� translates the horse�s color as �green� or �pale green� which could be a reference to the green skin color of the deathly ill or recently deceased. It is actually the third horseman that rides a black horse; however many grim reaper tattoos feature the Reaper riding this horse possibly due to the traditional interpretation of the color black representing famine, decay and death.

Death / Grim Reaper riding his black horse

Grim Reaper riding his legendary Black Horse

the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Death is riding the pale-green horse

In some tattoos, the Death / Grim Reaper is depicted seated on a throne of skulls or on a throne decorated with human skulls. Sometimes, the Death's throne is in the top of a huge pile of human bones and skulls.

The Death's throne, decorated with human skulls

Other depictions (e.g.: Grim Reaper sitting on the bed of a dying man, sitting on branch of a dead tree, sitting on a cross, etc), although present in some tattoos, are not so popular as the above mentioned depictions: the floating Grim Reaper, Grim Reaper riding his horse, Grim Reaper on his throne.

Death looking for a victim

mother Grim Reaper and a Grim Reaper child

unusual depiction of the Grim reaper with a baby Grim Reaper

Grim Reaper (also referred to as the Angel of Death) is a figure commonly used to represent death. The Grim Reaper became prominent in folklore during the Middle Ages, displacing earlier conceptions of Death as a benevolent, female figure. In 1479 in Cardiff, Duroc, seemingly a representation of Death who resembled a walking skeleton, appeared.

The Grim Reaper is often depicted as a skeleton or as a solemn-looking man wearing a flowing black cloak and carrying a scythe, who cuts off people's lives as though he were harvesting grain. Legend has it that he appears when one is nearing death to separate the human soul from the physical body using his sharp scythe. The Grim Reaper then chaperones the soul to its final destination (Heaven or Hell) and moves on to his next �appointment.� Although the Reaper is not a ghost, his is invisible and present at the moment of death.

Grim Reaper tattoos meanings:

The Grim Reaper and the Skull were often used as symbols in medieval and renaissance art as a stark reminder of the fact that life is finite and hints powerfully at the afterlife that awaits us. Various aphorisms and reflections (like "Memento mori", which can be translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember you will die") can be included in the design of these tattoos.

Carpe Diem (Seize the day)- the Grim Reaper tattoo can be a symbolic reminder that we are all mortal and to live life to the fullest and to accept your fate with bravery.

Death tattoos are very common among solders. As it represents courage, bravery, and not being afraid of death. You accept life for as it is, and strongly follow your goals.

Someone who has survived a grievous accident or life-threatening illness might get a Grim Reaper tattoo as a symbol of their triumph over death, or to remind themselves that just because they escaped once does not mean their future is certain.

The idea that "Life's a laugh and death's a joke" - usually, these tattoos contain comical or cartoon-like elements.

Below are several pictures with Grim Reaper tatoos:

Grim Reaper tattoo covering the shoulder and the upper arm

Black and white Grim Reaper tattoo

Death tattoo combining various elements: a skull, a clock - symbol of the of the relentless flow of time, a rose - a symbol of the ephemeral and the Latin phrase "Memento mori"

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Grim Reaper Tattoos � Good, evil or neutral?

Grim Reaper tattoos - coloured or black and white?

Death tattoos - various elements which can occur in a Grim Reaper tattoo - weapons

Death tattoo - various elements which can occur in a Death tattoo - animals

Death tattoo: the Death's hourglass

Death tattoo - various elements which can occur in a Death tattoo

Death tattoos: the main depictions of the Grim Reaper

Death Tattoos / Grim Reaper Tattoos: themes and meanings

Grim Reaper tattoos meanings:

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