Are you looking for a tattoo design that makes you feel empowered? Every time you look at your ink, do you want to be reminded that you have the strength to overcome any obstacle that comes your way?
Tattoos are an amazing way to remind a person of what they have overcome. In fact, getting inked has become so much more than just getting a permanent pretty design. Getting tattooed has even been linked to improved self-confidence and other mental health benefits.
Viren Swami, a professor of social psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, told BBC that,
“…there is evidence to suggest that getting a tattoo does impact not just your body image, but your identity in general.”
However, he did preface this by saying that getting inked isn’t going to be the solution to body image issues.
“The tattoo itself isn’t going to solve or get rid of the underlying issue that has caused the problem in the first place. It might be a short-term stopgap for some of the difficulties you’re experiencing and how you express them. But those difficulties aren’t going to suddenly disappear just because you get a tattoo.”
Even though a tattoo isn’t going to do away with low self-esteem, it could be a part of the healing journey.
“One of the most noxious aspects of mental illness and psychological suffering is that it often, and at least initially, makes people feel out of control and passive. A mental health-related tattoo can serve to flip the equation because you are affirmatively engaging your own psychological struggle,”
Psychologist Heather Silvestri told Byrdie
What it all comes down to is why you want to get a tattoo and the feeling you get when you look at the design. If you get a tattoo that helps you feel empowered and strong, it can go a long way in reminding you that you do have the confidence to do difficult things. After all, the process of actually getting a tattoo isn’t the easiest experience.
Here are some empowerment tattoo ideas to get you inspired:
For The Feminist
Medusa – the snake-haired supernatural being from Greek mythology – got a bad deal. Not only was she cursed with snakes for hair and a gaze that can turn people into stone because she was impregnated by Poseidon, but she was also killed by Perseus.
It didn’t end there for Medusa – her head was then carried around in a bag by Perseus as it still retained some of its stone-making abilities.
Over the years, a Medusa tattoo has become a symbol of women taking back their power.
“Medusa’s visage has been adopted by many women as a symbol of female rage, and used as a map to guide women through their terrors, through the depths of their anger into the sources of their power as women,”
Tattoo Filter
To celebrate femininity and the power of women, the Venus symbol (a circle with a cross beneath it) is a popular choice.
Venus was the goddess of love and beauty – she was known as Aphrodite to the Greeks. The feminist movement took this sign of femininity and added a fist rising up to add the additional symbolism of women’s liberation.
There are many words and phrases that are great choices for a feminist word tattoo. During 2017 ‘s Women’s Month, one saying that became very popular was “Nevertheless, she persisted”.
Molly Murphy MacGregor, executive director and co-founder of the National Women’s History Project, explained to Time Magazine that the saying,
“is really about every woman who really had to use her tenacity and courage to accomplish whatever she set out to accomplish. It’s universal. You think about our mothers and grandmothers — they’ve been persisting for a very long time.”
For Strength
As the king of the jungle, it’s no surprise that one animal that represents strength is the lion. Lions as symbols of courage and strength have weaved their way through pop culture in the form of movie characters and mythology.
In Harry Potter, the symbol for the courageous house – Gryffindor – is a lion. In the Lion King, Simba has to find the bravery to face his uncle, Scar.
A lion tattoo can symbolize strength, power, and valor for the tattooee.
Something doesn’t have to scream strength in the physical sense for it to be strong – one example is the lotus. This flower is definitely not delicate, as it has to rise above the muddy depths of a pond to be able to bloom.
“Even though delicate and incredibly beautiful at first, the lotus flower represents one’s ability and strength to rise from the darkness and turn into the best possible version of yourself,”
Saved Tattoo
For Mental Health
Going through depression, anxiety or any mental health challenge can make a permanent impression on you. Through this journey, many people turn to creative outlets and want a permanent reminder of what they have gone through so that they know they have the strength to keep going.
One of the most popular – and simple – mental health tattoos is a semicolon. This punctuation mark is used to link two sentences together. This has been translated through the lens of mental health awareness by representing the fact that a person’s struggle isn’t the end of their life’s path.
“Semicolons are a very traditional, very popular mental health tattoo and they represent that it’s not the end. People use a semicolon to send the message that their story is still being written,”
Tattoo Artist, Joanna Roman, explained to InStyle
Often, going through a difficult situation is a precursor for better things to come. This can be represented with a butterfly tattoo. A butterfly has to go through a metamorphosis to become a beautiful, colorful insect. Getting a butterfly inked can represent your own transformation into the person you are today, or the person you’re aiming to become.
Tattoos are extremely personal. You might decide that you want to get a heart tattoo to represent a lost loved one, whereas someone else’s inked heart can be a promise to themselves to put self-care at the top of their priority list.
When it comes to empowerment tattoos, what matters is that when you look at it, it helps you feel like you can take on the world.
