Hourglass Tattoo Meaning
Hourglass Tattoo Meaning
at-a-glance:
- Waiting
- Patience
- Impermanence
- Death
- Transition
- Time
- Temperance
- Cosmos
- Cycles
- Balance
- Inevitability
- Mortality
I have a 3 friends with hourglass tattoos.
Steve is serving life in prison – no parole. His hourglass tattoo signifies the inevitability of his situation. In his case, the tattoo is a stern marker of the unchangeable truth of his future. There is only time. This is his harsh reality: His scenery will not change until his death.
If life finds you waiting, waiting, waiting for the next phase, an hourglass tattoo might be a good reminder that this too shall pass – change is inevitable – and one way or another – the scenery is going to change.
Another buddy of mine, Grayson, got an hourglass tattoo for much brighter reasons. To him, an hourglass is symbolic of the balance seen in the Universe. In script font, he had this tattooed around the timepiece:
“To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”
Of course, this passage is from the legendary poem Auguries of Innocence by William Blake.
This is a great conveyance. Ancient alchemists had similar ideas about the symbolic meaning of the hourglass. They pictured one half of the glass as symbolic of the sky. The lower half representing the earth. Energy passes between the two and expresses a pervasive feel of balance, duality, and the infinite cycles of life passing between experiences of mundane and ethereal.
Are you awestruck by the wonder and inevitability inherent in the cycles of life and the cosmos? Are you needing to memorialize your knowledge that all life prevails (one way or another) with the passing of time? If so, an hourglass tattoo might be your thing.
Most of us are familiar with the saying “she has an hourglass figure.” The hourglass has a curvaceous appeal, very feminine.
My friend Sable picked up on this sensual look with her ink. Her hourglass tattoo represents the Divine Feminine and how power can be derived through specifically female cycles of life. She understands female rites. From maiden, mother to crone and beyond – her hourglass tattoo captures all the elements of feminine progress. Her piece galvanizes her understanding of what it means to be a fully developed woman. Fascinating, really.
Speaking of gender, another view at the hourglass can reveal two triangles: One erect and one inverted, each meeting tip-to-tip. This is a common motif of male (erect) and female (inverted). An hourglass tattoo might be a unique way to convey the timeless connection between male/female. Or, perhaps even a way to express the endless dance between polarity (yin/yang, light/dark, creation/destruction, moon/sun, etc).
Whether you are wanting an expression of “tempus fugit” (time flies) or looking for an unorthodox expression of the phases of life-at-large…I hope these observations help you in your tattoo research.
