Perhaps the most effective way of expressing your devotion to and sheer love of God is through a cross design inked directly onto your body. This does not necessarily mean just the Christian God, as Pagans long before that religion regarded it as a symbol of the sun’s puissance and still do. The most popular tattoos in the world today are styled on Celtic cross imagery. People of the Celtic ethnicity wear these designs to demonstrate their respect for their past history.

Perhaps the most complicated design is that with knotwork representing the unknowable sophistication of the natural world. Spirals and maze motifs refer to the cyclical nature of our planet as it passes through four seasons. The circle atop the cross has an ancient religious importance.

In the Book of Kells, the Ancient Irish document held in Trinity College, Dublin, the origins of cross tattoos are represented. Indeed other world religions use this design also which thus explains the sheer popularity of this tattoo transculturally.

Christianity and Celtic lore have a strong connection dating back to the conversion of Celts to the Middle Eastern religion and the import of the cross motif. There are now a vast range of such motifs that are beautiful in appearance, preserving the old culture for future generations to discuss and remember.

Ancient Bible manuscripts feature crosses which would go on to inspire a whole panoply of Celtic designs which in turn have resulted in cross tattoos which are incredibly flexible because they can be used across entire patches of skin like the back or as intricate aspects of small armbands. The designs can range from the bare and simple to the enormously complex and convey the primacy of emotions over material objects.

The knotwork found in many designs are a nod back to ethnic faith and culture. The four elements of the world – earth, wind, fire and water – are symbolized by the four axes of the cross with the circle above signifying God’s eternal love or the Sun’s capacity to nurture all life on the planet and as a source of incomparable energy and light.