The poppy flower tattoo meaning is fruitfulness, fertility, oblivion, idleness, sleep, death, night, and nature. For those who trust in God, poppy tattoo design symbolizes the blood of Christ, his suffering, and self-sacrifice. Just like the rose tattoo, poppy means passion, romance, and love.
A single-flower poppy tattoo design indicates a sentimental and lonely person who, in spite of everything, loves life. Also, the poppy is a symbol of soldiers fallen during the last two world wars. In the “Language of Flowers”, a poppy means “To find consolation in the dream”, and also oblivion, eternal dream.
Poppy flower tattoo can have different designs and ideas, it can be simple, traditional, realistic, watercolor, minimalist, delicate, tiny, and small or big. The most common colors for a poppy flower tattoo ideas are black, black and white, red and all the shades of red color.
This tattoo can be made on different parts of the body shoulder, wrist, back, arm, foot, sleeve, hip, hand, side, rib neck or cover up a big part of the body. Here you can find an image gallery of the best red and black poppy flower tattoos designs and ideas for girls and guys.
Red poppy tattoo meaning
Very often, tattoo ideas with the image of a red poppy mean a lonely and proud person. However, such a design can also mean that the owner of the tattoo feels comfortable alone, without a noisy company. The tattoo of a single red poppy flower is chosen by people who are trying to cope with the sadness from unrequited love or to live through the betrayal and deception of a loved one.
The meaning of a red poppy flower tattoo can also be positive – love, passion, and fidelity. And if it is a tattoo for a couple, it can also mean the deep affection of partners for each other. Best of all, the red poppy tattoo will protect the newlyweds from troubles, if to select a design, the two parts of which seem to complement each other and symbolize the unity of the souls of lovers.
Black poppy tattoo meaning
The black poppy flower tattoo meaning is sadness, anxiety, grief, or death. Also, such a tattoo design can indicate a person who in any way is connected with witchcraft or otherworldly forces. In general, the black poppy flower tattoo has a negative meaning.
Poppy tattoo for guys
For guys, a poppy flower tattoo means comfort from loneliness, and in the UK – courage, and valor. On the territory of the other countries, the interpretation of a poppy tattoo can be different – the transience of life, eternal youth, strength, and courage.
Poppy tattoo for girls
For girls, the tattoo with poppy flowers means tenderness, humility, cheerfulness, and in China, also the beauty that will last until the end of life. The poppy flower itself as a symbol is closely connected with the processes of birth, death, and the rebirth of nature. That is why a poppy tattoo symbolizes fertility for a girl, and, according to some information, even helps to get pregnant. Superstitious women also make poppy flower tattoos as a talisman from witchcraft and the evil eye.
Poppy flower symbolism
In art, this is an emblem of Greek gods of a sleep “Hypnos” and dreams “Morpheus” and an allegory of Night – the symbolism based on the properties of the opium poppy which grew as a wildflower in Greece and on East Mediterranean and was used for grassy tinctures since the most ancient times.
The poppy flower is also connected with the Ancient Greek goddess of agriculture “Demeter” (Ceres in the Roman mythology) and her daughter “Persephone” (Proserpine) – as a symbol of nature’s winter dream. Christians borrowed some aspects of this tradition, having made the red poppy flower and emblem of self-sacrifice of the Christ and “Deadly dream”. The poppy fields of Flanders on which took place bloody battles of both world wars gave a new sharpness to this ancient symbol
Poppy in legends
Because of its color, the poppy flower was connected with different “bloody” legends. So, in France, there was celebrated a day of the termination of military operations – The Day of the poppy. An English poet Mckre wrote, that “In fields of Flanders between crosses red poppies blossom in numbers…”
After the battle at Nördlingen 1634 – one of the most bloody in Thirty-year war in Germany – the next day the whole battle-field was covered with a lot of scarlet poppies. It has generated a myth as if the Earth has returned the dead soldiers. They said that at Waterloo the Earth was red from poppies too.
Poppy in rituals and customs
The poppy flower has a great value in magic. However more often it was used the self-seeding poppy blossoming with white flowers. It is considered a strong remedy in love magic. The seeds have to be collected with own hand, in the evening, or the night of the growing moon, and it is obligatory to collect them in the palm of the right hand.
For love attraction, it is necessary to carry some seeds of a poppy in a pocket. The poppy flower tattoo is an award from various evil spirits and protects from sorcerers, witches, and the evil eye. The poppy also protected people and cattle from snakes: on the eve of annual holidays it was spread in the house and fumigated, it was put on a window in order snakes not to creep in the house, it was spread around the cow in order not to be bitten by a snake.
People tried to look in the future with the poppy’s help, for example, it was necessary to take a dry box with seeds, to do a small aperture and to remove the seeds, then to write a question on a small piece of yellow paper, to combine it and to place into the box. To put it near the bed and in the morning it is possible to learn the answer to a question from the prophetical dream.
And if on the midnight of Christmas to stay at the crossroads of two roads with a mortar with poppy in it, and to strike three times with a pestle, then in the distributed deaf sounds it is possible to learn about the events of the coming year. Such custom of guessing existed in Germany.
Red and black poppy flower tattoo designs and ideas
