Grim Reaper Tattoos – Good, evil or neutral?

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).

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Grim Reaper tattoos - coloured or black and white?

Posted by Unknown 10:32 0 comments

Grim Reaper tattoos - coloured or black and white?

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.

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Posted by Unknown 06:56 0 comments

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

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 is portrayed as a young woman holding a scythe

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.

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 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

a very popular combination: guns, roses and a skull

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

a vision modern of the Angel of Death: Angel of Death 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 tattoo design: a skeleton holding a modern semi-automatic pistol

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Posted by Unknown 12:14 0 comments

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

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.

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

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Posted by Unknown 06:32 0 comments

Death tattoo: the Death's hourglass

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'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.

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Posted by Unknown 05:00 0 comments