In this article I will tell you some of the amazing myths and legends that have been told over time about the beautiful butterfly, and hopefully, give you some good ideas along the way for your butterfly tattoo design.
Butterfly tattoo designs look good on the ankle, wrist, arm, etc, and look even better I think in full arm tattoo design, or say down one side of your back, following the contours of your body shape.
Another great idea is combining a full arm butterfly and lotus flower tattoo design together, how fantastic would that design look with so many brilliant colours to choose from.
Perhaps personalise the design with lettering, such as, putting your loved one's name (as I did with my daughter's) beneath the butterfly.
Now I liked to share with you some of the stories that have been handed down through the ages surrounding this beautiful gift of nature. I think it's safe to say pretty much everybody loves butterflies, and if you have experienced butterflies up close in all their fabulous colours at your local zoo butterfly enclosure, then you will know like me, how something so small and silent can evoke such strong emotions.
But there was a time you know when the site of a butterfly stirred up other, not so nice emotions. For example, in the Middle Ages a large number of butterflies together were seen as a forecast of epidemics or wars.
And the Celtic people believed seeing a butterfly at night was a prediction of death to follow. In Bulgaria, the sight of a dark coloured butterfly meant sickness was soon to follow, while in other parts of Europe this same butterfly was an omen of thunderstorms to come.
In some parts of the USA a white butterfly meant an omen of death if it entered your house and flew around you, while in other parts a white butterfly in your signified a pending wedding. To those recently divorced both examples apply.
In Germany, if the first butterfly seen in spring was white it is also an omen of death.
While the Samoans believed they would be struck dead if they killed or caught a butterfly. In the Middle Ages in Ireland killing a white butterfly was forbidden as they believed it was the soul of a dead child.
In Scotland it is unlucky to keep or kill butterflies. In England it is unlucky to kill the first butterfly you see, and it is a bad omen to see 3 butterflies together.
Of course we now look at the butterfly with different eyes and it is said the first sighting of a red butterfly is an omen of good health.
In many myths and legends butterflies are considered to be human souls. If you read my article on fairies you will see they were also accredited with being human souls, but the butterfly myth is believed to have begun through stories related to the different stages of the butterfly's life cycle. In stage one the caterpillar spends its time totally engrossed in eating, this stage is compared to our physical stage of life where, like the butterfly, we eat and keep moving. In stage two the cocoon represents the cloth people were wrapped in after death, and the final stage is the emergence of the butterfly, as Jesus left the shroud behind, the butterfly represents the resurrection into a new state of life, free of any material worry.
Another lovely story is that the creator of all things created the butterflies from all of the colours of nature just for children to enjoy, and the butterflies not only looked beautiful, but also had beautiful singing voices. But many of the birds were jealous and complained so the creator withdrew their ability to sing and have remained silent since.
