Aloha!
Hawaiian tattoo designs and body arts have a long history of more than a thousand years. But, it wasn't until the 1990's and when celebrities started bearing them, only then these tattoo designs started coming back into fads.
In the Hawaiian culture, getting a tattoo is looked upon as a very important ritual. It was such an important part of their life to the extent that the Hawaiians even pray to a tattoo god each time someone in the community gets a tattoo.
And not so much for fashion purpose or simply to look cool, Hawaiians only get tattoo for a few purposes:
- Mourning For A Loved One - For remembrance of a love one lost
- Talisman For Protection - To protect and ward off evil spirits or enemy
- Personal Identifications - Identify themselves as a community or group
Therefore, most Hawaiian tattoos have a certain meaning or significance behind it.
Comparing to their neighbors from other islands within the Polynesian chain like Maori and Samoan, Hawaiian tattoo designs tend to be larger and bolder in size and colours. Few common Hawaiian tattoo designs are:
- Arrows
- Flowers
- Dolphins
- Lizards (Hawaiians have great respect for lizards)
- Sea Turtle
Besides these traditional tattoo art works, there are the much "cooler" Hawaiian band tattoo designs. The Hawaiian band tattoo design is very popular amongst tattoo lovers today because of the "modern" yet traditional look that it has.
