A ‘Dragon’ was born when ancient anatomy scholars came across dinosaural remains. And perhaps that’s the reason why the dragon stories have been in abundance in the culture, mythology and myths of the areas known to be the best fossil excavating grounds! From pagodas to national flags to the abandoned lakes in Eastern Europe, influence of dragons remains undisputed from Far East to the Atlantic in the West.
Oriental cultures associate dragons with wisdom and spirituality. Pagodas often have roof-corners shaped into dragon like faces. The Himalayan state of Bhutan has a dragon on it’s national flag which is perhaps the highest honor given to these mythical creatures.
Contradictory to this, in the West dragons somehow tend to remain associated with terror. Western dragons often have wings, they vomit hell(remember Harry Potter?), guard treasures and are tamed by witches. European fairy tales often end in the hero killing a dragon to display his valour.
When it comes to tattoos, these never-existent creatures bring a flood of ideas into the artist’s mind. Terror to wisdom, wings to crawling serpents, scales to fins - dragons can be manipulated into anything and everything! A Dragon tattoo depends a lot on the message the user wants to convey, which in turn depends on his ethnicity, religious belief and so on. Dragons are also used to symbolize sports teams, bands of orchestras and many such small groups.
So, whatever may be your dragon design, it is a great way to display adherence to your culture, ethnicity, belief or if nothing of these, surely your guts to terrify!
Source: Dragontattoogallery
Comments
In Oriental myth, the dragon could not be more opposite to its Western counterpart. Dragons in Oriental art do not have WINGS nor do they necessarily breathe fire, although FLAMES erupt from their limbs. They are not creatures of EARTH, but rather combine elements of the air and WATER and are equally at home in the OCEAN or the CLOUDS. Al- though strength and power are represented, the dragon above all is a reconciliation of opposites, a combination of YIN AND YANG. Also unlike the Western dragon, the Oriental dragon is not a cunningly malevolent beast. Instead it is strength combined with wisdom and is benevolent. It is also not unusual to see a dragon clutching a BALL. a PEARL, or a jewel in one of its claws. This item is essentially the closed-lotus form seen in various Buddhist designs including those in temples and on grave markers. It represents the spiritual essence of the universe, by which the dragon controls the winds, rains, and even the movement of the planets, and he protects it from those who might usurp those powers. Like other Japanese tattoos, the choice of a dragon is an aspiration to these same qualities of wholeness and wisdom. It is one of the more popular of Japanese-style tattoos and they are depicted with great variety in terms of body position, degree of hostility in aggressive or passive position of the claws and jaws, and in their environment. Tattoo Arts www.tattoobody.org
thanks for info, Alex!
In the west, dragon is a greedy, fire-breathing, cave-dwelling and fear-inspiring creature that jealously guards its hoard of gold. In the east, however, Eastern dragons are portrayed as good, kind, and intelligent. Eastern Dragons have the most recorded history in the world, especially in China going back thousands of years.
The eastern dragon is one of the most popular mythological creatures picked for inking and a classic choice for a tattoo design. It is usually depicted as a wingless, heavily-scaled snake-like creature with small clawed legs and a horned or antlered camel head, and is associated with sea, clouds or the heavens.
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