Celtic History

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Why Celtic Tattoos Became Popular

The history of the modern Celtic tattoo, from Victorian spiritualism to the Irish-American revival of the 1980s, and what the symbols actually mean.

The Celtic knot tattoo, the triskele tattoo, the claddagh tattoo, and the various other Celtic designs that have become ubiquitous in the modern tattoo tradition distinctive visual expressions of the contemporary Celtic influence on popular culture. The history of the modern Celtic tattoo is a story that takes in the Victorian Celtic revival, the Irish-American identity politics of the twentieth century, and the global tattoo boom of the last forty years, and it forms part of the broader Celtic legacy today.

The Older Celtic Tattoo

The very existence of an older Celtic tattoo tradition is itself an interesting question. The classical sources, particularly the elder Pliny and the Greek geographer Strabo, refer to the practice of tattooing among the ancient Celts, although the evidence is not unambiguous. Pliny’s Natural History refers to the Picts of Scotland as being named for their painted bodies (picti in Latin means painted), and the archaeological evidence from mummified bog bodies in northern Europe has been interpreted by some scholars as evidence of Celtic tattooing, although the interpretation of the bog body evidence is contested.

The medieval Celtic world had its own complex relationship with body marking. The penitentials of the early medieval church contain references to tattooing, and the early Irish and Welsh legal texts contain provisions relating to the marking of slaves, captives, and criminals. The Brehon law tradition contains specific provisions relating to the marking of those who had committed particular offences, and the practice was known in the medieval Celtic world. The later medieval and early modern tradition, however, was more ambivalent, and the practice of body marking in the Celtic countries declined in the early modern period under the combined pressure of Christian morality and the European cultural preference for unmarked skin.

The Victorian Invention of the Celtic Tattoo

The modern Celtic tattoo, in the sense of a deliberately chosen Celtic design placed on the body as a personal statement, is a product of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Celtic revival of the nineteenth century had rediscovered the Celtic knotwork of the medieval manuscript tradition, and the new interest in the older Celtic design traditions produced a body of design work that was available to be used in many different contexts, including the new tattooing tradition of the late Victorian period.

The late Victorian and Edwardian tattoo tradition was a substantial phenomenon in its own right. The tattooing of sailors, soldiers, and members of the upper classes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries created a market for skilled tattooists and for new design ideas, and the Celtic knotwork of the medieval manuscript tradition was a natural source of inspiration. The Arts and Crafts movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with its interest in the older Celtic design traditions, also helped to make the knotwork available to a wider audience, and the modern tattoo tradition drew on this broader visual inheritance.

The Irish-American Connection

The Celtic tattoo also has a particular history in the Irish-American community. The Irish immigrants who came to the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly in the wake of the Great Famine, brought with them a strong sense of Irish identity, and the use of Celtic symbols in the new American context was a way of expressing that identity. The Celtic cross became a common feature of Irish-American graveyards, and the use of Celtic knotwork in Irish-American design more generally was a way of marking the distinctiveness of the community.

The Celtic tattoo of the modern period is, in part, a product of the late twentieth-century revival of Irish-American identity. The Irish-American cultural organisations, the Gaelic-American clubs, and the various Hibernian societies all promoted a strong sense of Irish identity that found expression in the use of Celtic symbols. The Celtic tattoo, with its knots and its crosses, was a natural extension of this broader cultural movement, and the practice of getting a Celtic tattoo as a mark of Irish or broader Celtic identity became a common feature of the late twentieth-century Irish-American scene.

The Global Tattoo Boom

The modern popularity of the Celtic tattoo is also a product of the global tattoo boom of the last forty years. The tattoo, which was for much of the twentieth century a marginal and somewhat disreputable practice associated with sailors, bikers, and convicts, has become a mainstream fashion, and the market for tattoos has expanded enormously. The Celtic designs have been among the most popular of the new tattoo traditions, and the Celtic knot, the Celtic cross, the triskele, the claddagh, and the various other designs from the Celtic knotwork and symbolism tradition have all become common features of the modern tattoo shop.

The reasons for the popularity of the Celtic designs are not difficult to understand. The designs are visually striking, with their intricate interlace patterns and their bold geometric forms, and they have a depth of historical reference that gives them a particular resonance. The designs are also versatile, working well at a range of scales and in a range of body locations, and they can be combined with text, with figurative elements, and with other design traditions in ways that make them adaptable to a wide range of personal tastes.

The Meanings of the Designs

The meanings of the various Celtic designs are a contested subject. The most common interpretation of the Celtic knot is that it represents the eternal, the unending, the interweaving of the spiritual and the physical, but the actual meaning of the designs in the medieval tradition is often obscure. The medieval Book of Kells and related manuscripts contain knotwork designs that scholars have interpreted in many different ways.

The triskele, the triple spiral that appears on the older Celtic metalwork and on the early medieval Celtic sculpture, has been interpreted in many ways. The most common interpretation is that it represents the triple aspect of the divine, the triple division of the world, or the triple rhythm of life, death, and rebirth. The claddagh, the traditional Irish ring design of two hands holding a crowned heart, is interpreted as a symbol of love, loyalty, and friendship.

The Celtic cross, the high cross of the early medieval Celtic church with its characteristic ring surrounding the intersection of the cross arms, is a specifically Christian symbol. The Celtic cross is a popular tattoo, but the design has also been controversial, since it is a Christian symbol rather than a pre-Christian one, and some practitioners of the broader Celtic revival have argued that the cross is not properly part of the older Celtic tradition.

The Criticisms of the Practice

The Celtic tattoo has not been without its critics. Some scholars and members of the modern Celtic communities have objected to the use of Celtic symbols in tattooing as a form of cultural appropriation, and the use of sacred symbols in non-sacred contexts has been a subject of discussion in the modern Celtic world. The use of the older knotwork designs in tattooing has also raised questions about the relationship between the medieval art and the modern practice, and the question of whether the medieval designs can be reduced to a fashionable tattoo is one that the modern Celtic communities have discussed at length.

The criticism has not, however, slowed the popularity of the Celtic tattoo. The designs continue to be popular, and the practice continues to grow. The Celtic tattoo is, a remarkable example of the way in which the older Celtic visual tradition has been transformed into something that is at once recognisably continuous with the past and distinctly modern in its forms.

Conclusion

The Celtic tattoo distinctive visual expressions of the Celtic influence on modern popular culture. The history of the practice takes in the older Celtic world, the Victorian revival, the Irish-American identity movement, and the global tattoo boom, and the modern form of the practice is a product of all of these influences.

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