If you are looking for proffesional Celtic Body Art and you've hit the jackpot! We have the largest set of Celtic tattoo flash available. Professional Celtic design for your tattoo shop. 44 pages of 11x14 Celtic / Nordic tattoo art, with line art. Awesome variety of each type of Celtic design. (Celtic crosses, hearts, armbands, triskles, spirals, and more.)
 
 

 
Celtic Body Art
The tattoo flash (each individual design) you will find in these paged has been drawn by Shane Clark aka. Celtic Artist. I have been drawing Celtic art and designs all my life. I draw on a regular basis and am constantly seeking new techniques and new styles of Celtic art. I also draw custom designs, so if you would like a special, one of a kind Celtic tattoo feel free to contact me.  
 
 

History of Celtic Tattooing by Shane Clark

Tattooing in Celtic lands is one of our peoples' oldest art forms. This set of tattoo designs was drawn in honor of the Celtic people and my heritage. It didn't take much for the ancients to generate the idea to tattoo on themselves. All it would take is for someone to puncture themself by falling in a fire, or to get punctured in the process of applying the fameous blue wode of the Picts, who are fameous for their tattoos.

Celtic Tattooing that we know came around the period of Celtic stone carvings and metalwork. To the ancient Celts, tattooing wasen't just an art form. It was mystical and brought meaning and significance into their life... and relation to certain things. Perhaps relations with Gods, perhaps with fertilitity of the earth, or womankind, perhaps a way of preservation of life after death (a common theme among the ancient Celts). It was certainly used to designate cultural factors and factions such as chiefmanship. My opinion is that it was used to terify their enemies. The same as Knotwork was used to confuse them in battle.

Picts were famously tattooed (or scarified) with elaborate dark blue woad (possibly even by using copper, which gives a blue tone). Julius Caesar wrote about these tattoos in Book V of his Gallic Wars (54 BCE). I wonder what Julias Caesar would have said about this set of Celtic flash.

During Christianization in Europe, tattoos were often considered remaining elements of paganism and were legally prohibited. This set of Tattoo Flash would have definately gotten the artist hanged.
 

Quotes for easy reference: 


The Irish poet Lucan refers to tattooed shins as status or rank marks e.g. Group affiliations and designations of occupation.

'they mark their bodies with various figures of all kinds of animals and wear no clothes for fear of concealing these figures.' ("Herodian")

 

"All the Britons dye their bodies with woad, which produces a blue color and this gives them a more terrifying appearance in battle ". (Wode is a dye made from a plant found in various areas of Europe). (Celtic Art by, "I.M. Stead")

" A suggestion is that the Picts painted or tattooed their faces, bodies and exposed limbs and that by so doing they were maintaining in the far north a custom of great antiquity and former wide occurrence. In Scotland, tattooing may have been a pre-Celtic, pre-Iron Age inheritance; yet there appears to be tattooed cheeks on Gaulish coins, and we know of Caesar's remarks about the painted bodies, of the British tribes, while one post-Roman Irish source refers to tattooed shins - by far the most likely meanings would be those concerning the status or rank, the group affiliation and the occupation of anyone bearing such marks." (Celtic Britian by "Charles Thomas")

"It seems clear that the Picts tattooed by puncture and that animals were the chief subject portrayed. The forms of beast, birds, and fish which the Cruithnae, or Picts tattooed on their bodies may have been totem marks. Certain marks on faces of Gaulish coins seem to be tattoo marks. Tattooing by puncture was possibly known among such Gaulish tribes as Ambiani, Baiocasses and Caletes. The markings of Picts is historically important in showing the advances of tattoo by puncture to an extreme northerly point of Great Britain before the Christian era." (The History of Tattooing and it's Significance by, "W.D. Hambly" (1925))


"tattooing was common amongst certain religious groups in the ancient Mediterranean world" (The Greek Myths by "Robert Graves")


 

Custom Celtic Designs
 
I charge $15.00 per hour for custom designs and require a $50.00 deposit. During the drawing process you will be sent sketches and designs for approval. I work with you to make sure that you get the Celtic Flash you truly want so that you can take to your tattoo artist and know you will be satisfied.
 
 

Keep coming back!


 
I am constantly drawing new art and will be adding new sets soon. I also keep a list of tattoo shops who are good at tattooing my Celtic designs. Currently the list is under construction, but will be updated soon.

 

 

Celtic Tattoo Flash is a great way to draw customers to your shop. When they see this huge collection of Celtic designs your shop becomes a great reference place for Celtic style art. Also, if you ever need a custom drawing you can always contact me through the home page of this site. Same goes if you ever need any information about symbol meanings or history to help your client with a question. If I don't know the answer off hand, I'll research it and add it to the site. This is one Celtic set you won't be sorry you put in your shop.

 

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