Rising from the Ashes: The Phoenix Tattoo
Many aspects of cultural belief spawn from mythology. There is certain iconography, certain archaic symbols that have become so innately connected to humanity that their meanings are known subconsciously. This subconscious faith in certain beliefs is the ultimate thread, the underlying tie between cultures, countries, societies and, most importantly, minds. For many, the phoenix is one of these symbols. The source of Greek, Egyptian and Chinese mythology, the phoenix humbled ancient civilizations, and it still humbles contemporary students. The most famous of mythological birds, the phoenix has been resurrected in modern mythology as well, on the big screen, in novels and in the phoenix tattoo.
Rebirth and Revision
The phoenix earned its name from the Greek word for red, symbolizing fire. Born of fire and consumed by fire, the phoenix lived a life eternally inseparable from its own fate. According to historians, the phoenix originally traveled to Greece from Ethiopia. The Egyptians too pinpointed the bird's origin in Africa, but they believed it to be a manifestation of the god of the sun, and appeared only once every 500 years. The Chinese phoenix became a symbol of marriage, the only bird able to unite the yin and the yang. The Romans, while disrespectful of the mythologies of the civilizations they conquered, did borrow the image of the phoenix on their coinage, expressing the endurance of the empire.
However, a phoenix tattoo rarely addresses this history. Instead, individuals choose the phoenix tattoo for the original mythology, the original story behind the phoenix itself, not its later symbolisms and religions connotations. The phoenix was, in a sense, a suicidal bird; when it knew it was time to return to ash, it burned itself alive. Some versions of the myth have the bird collecting herbs and physically setting them on fire, creating a kind of sacrificial alter. Other versions illustrate the bird simply combusting in a nest of twigs.
No matter the nature of the death, however, the phoenix would always rise again, three days later, from the very ashes it died in. In essence, the phoenix tattoo symbolizes life from death, rebirth and resurrection. Like Jesus, death meant nothing for the phoenix; it was imply the end of a chapter, the prologue before the next. A phoenix tattoo speaks of the soul, of the heart, of the undying, enduring, never-ending pull of immortal life: triumph from pain, new beginnings from old endings.
Of all the tattoo designs, the phoenix tattoo truly is a powerful image. Usually sketched in full color to illustrate the strength of red and fire, a phoenix tattoo is rarely trapped in a small design; if often spreads out across the whole back, encompasses entire arms, or reaches across the stomach from hip to hip. Like immortal life itself, the phoenix tattoo is unlimited, unhindered and, above all, unwavering. The wearer is aware of a sense of mystery and faith, subconscious belief and unity, and onlookers too are struck by a particular sense of serenity.
