The Blog

“What does that mean?”

It’s a question you’re bound to get asked all the time when you get tattooed. So we’ve decided to explore some of the actual symbolism behind traditional tattoos. Of course, you don’t need a special meaning to get a tattoo. But you might find that a certain meaning resonates with you and that, in turn, can inspire you to start down one design path or another.

Today, we’re talking about roses. So what does that rose tattoo mean?

Back in the old school, roses were symbols of femininity. As most people getting tattoos back in those days were sailors, soldiers and convicts, the rose often signified a woman left behind. This could be a girlfriend or wife, for sure, but it could also be a mother, sister or daughter. Add a simple stem to the rose and it carries a further connotation of a “one true love.”

The stem carries an additional symbolism: The thorns on a rose are a clear marker that love, while beautiful like the rose’s bloom, also comes at the price of pain and suffering, signified by the rose’s thorns — to say nothing of the pain that comes from getting the rose tattoo in the first place.

There’s also a story about how the rose tattoo first gained popularity during the First World War to symbolize a nurse who saved the life of the tattooed. This meaning is immortalized in the old timey song “The Rose of No Man’s Land.”

Texans love their yellow roses, while a white rose can symbolize innocence, as can the pink rose. Blue roses are traditionally an aspiration toward the perfect or impossible. Black roses, unsurprisingly, symbolize death or loss, often as memorial tattoos for people who have passed.