Beyond The Constellation

I have a Cancer tattoo, although if you looked at it without context you probably wouldn't immediately recognise it as anything but a crab. That's partly because I designed it myself, and partly because I have always found the most obvious visual interpretations of zodiac tattoos a little limiting. 

This isn't a criticism of constellation tattoos or zodiac symbols, some of them are beautiful, but I've often wondered why people choose to stop at the very first layer of a story when astrology offers so much more to work with.

What fascinates me about zodiac tattoos isn't necessarily the tattoos themselves, but the fact that they continue to survive every trend cycle imaginable. Tattooing has changed dramatically over the last two decades, with styles becoming more specialised, more technically ambitious and increasingly influenced by social media, yet people continue returning to astrology with remarkable consistency. There are trends that dominated entire eras of tattooing that now feel almost impossible to take seriously, but zodiac tattoos somehow remain untouched by that fate.

I suspect that has less to do with astrology itself and more to do with what astrology offers people. Most people are not getting zodiac tattoos because they believe the stars have written every detail of their future. They are getting them because human beings have always looked for frameworks through which to understand themselves, whether that framework happens to be religion, mythology, family history, psychology, folklore or the stars. Astrology survives because it gives people a language for talking about identity, and tattooing has always been deeply interested in questions of identity.

The funny thing is that when people begin exploring zodiac tattoos, they often start with the symbol rather than the story. A Scorpio is almost always taken in its literal namesake form, a Leo becomes a lion, a Pisces becomes two fish and a Virgo becomes the glyph. Somewhere along the way, centuries of mythology, symbolism and cultural interpretation are compressed into a single image, which feels a little unfair when you consider how much inspiration and depth is sitting right there, unexplored.

Cancer, for instance, is associated with the moon, tides, protection, memory, domesticity and emotional inheritance. Depending on what draws somebody to the sign, a Cancer tattoo could become lunar imagery, shells, oceanic motifs, botanical work or something entirely personal that only makes sense to the person wearing it. 

The same is true for almost every zodiac sign. 

Virgo carries associations with ritual, harvest and devotion. 

Pisces lends itself naturally to themes of duality, dreams and transformation. 

Leo's relationship to solar symbolism often feels far richer than simply tattooing a lion, and Aquarius offers an enormous visual playground if you're willing to move beyond the water bearer.

This is usually the advice I find myself giving people when they begin thinking about zodiac tattoos. Instead of asking what your sign looks like, spend a little time asking what part of your sign actually resonates with you. The answer is often much more interesting than the symbol itself.

The best tattoos rarely emerge from choosing the first idea that appears. They emerge from curiosity, from sitting with an idea for longer than you originally intended, from following a thread and discovering that what interested you wasn't the constellation at all, but the stories, symbols and personal associations that had attached themselves to it over the years. They come from truly connecting with the symbolism you wish to have permanently marked. 

Perhaps that's why zodiac tattoos have surpassed the ‘trendy’ category, because at the heart of it isn't just 12 signs, but what that one sign signifies for the person getting it. The signs themselves may be ancient, but every person arrives at them differently, carrying their own experiences, contradictions and interpretations. The tattoo simply becomes another way of telling their story, which is exactly what tattooing has always done best.

Do you still read your horoscope in newspapers, or magazine websites?