Celtic Tattoos Designs for Rich and Traditional Tattoos

© Photographer: Marek Hlavac | Agency: Dreamstime.com

The horse symbol in Celtic design is an important one. The Celts had quite high values for the horse and it was linked both the sun god Belenus (also spelled Belenos) and also to war and all the associations of war including long life endurance, accumulation of riches and acquiring of more land, power and winning.

© Photographer: Patrick Guenette | Agency: Dreamstime.com

As any cat lover will tell you the fortunes of our feline friend has changed dramatically through history perhaps more than most other animals. The cat has gone from revered deity to evil witches familiar! Quite a change. To the Celtics the cat was a guardian to the next world or as they believed the underworld. The Celtics believed the cat had deep knowledge and understanding of things that we could not. A cat is wise and aloof, it is artful and clever and can give knowledge of the unseen world. So not much has changed there then! The cat is much the same and I can easily believe they can see beyond this world and hold a wisdom that is secret to only them. To the Celtics the cat was a very highly esteemed animal.

Celtic Dog Tattoo Design - 3 dogs intertwined.


© Photographer: Patrick Guenette | Agency: Dreamstime.com

The Celts were a very artistic people with everything decorated in the most amazing shapes and designs. Yes if you look closely at many of their designs their art is far from free flowing and inspirational. It is beautiful yet exact with the patterns being precision thought out and executed with rules that are followed in each of the designs.

The Celts hated empty space so everything was stocked full of design. Many of their designs show their connection with nature, others are more spiritual.

The a a few Basic Designs that we use from the Celts.

There are the Celtic Key patterns which tend to be squarer, which seems out of character with the rest of the Celtic art which is more flowing and lends itself to circular patterns

There is of course the Celtic Knot Design, that you see in lots of Celtic tattoos in various forms.

There are the animal designs that have birds and wolves etc.

There are beautiful spiral designs with one, two or three spirals

© Photographer: Alexandr Sidorov | Agency: Dreamstime.com


© Photographer: Ukiriki | Agency: Dreamstime.com

celtic cross tattoo designs

The Celtic Cross is one of the most popular of Celtic Designs for Tattoo. In this example the cross is filled with knot work. This is a slight variation on the basic traditional knots.


© Photographer: Patrick Guenette | Agency: Dreamstime.com

© Photographer: Gamemon | Agency: Dreamstime.com

There are 8 basic knot shapes that can be used to make up a Celtic Design. These can then be adapted slightly to form slightly different shapes. For instance adding points to the curves completely changes the look of your knot.