Cross Tattoo Designs

Symbols like the cross go back long before the written word. One of the oldest crosses was placed within a circle. These Solar or Wheel Crosses appeared in Neolithic Europe, often as petroglyphs or rock carvings. They are also found in Asia, America, and India, as representations of the rising and setting of the sun, the seasons, and the union of the polarities. Since the cross was used all over the world, it is no small wonder that it took on many different meanings within many different cultures.
Within modern tattoo genres, the cross is a tattoo design that has been in vogue for at least the last two centuries, and was tattooed by sailors, merchant seamen, was heavily represented in Old School tattooing, was popular among Military Serviceman, Latino tattooing, and is today one of the most popular tattoo designs in the world.

The Cross itself is one of the most ancient, widespread, and important symbols in human history - the vertical and horizontal lines representing Father and Mother Nature, respectively. The point of intersection of those two lines -- the point of synthesis -- represented those mystical and spiritual concepts that embraced the meeting of the material and the spiritual in human existence.