Hourglass Tattoo Meanings
An hourglass tattoo, a fascinating and intricate piece of body art, carries diverse meanings and symbolism that transcend its aesthetic appeal.
Let’s delve into the captivating world of hourglass tattoos and explore their multifaceted significance:
1. Passage of Time: At its core, an hourglass symbolizes the relentless and impartial march of time. The grains of sand slipping from one bulb to another remind us of the fleeting nature of life, urging us to make the most of each precious moment.
2. Mortality: Hourglass tattoos often serve as a poignant reminder of mortality and the finite nature of existence. They encourage individuals to embrace life and live it fully while they can.
3. Balance: The hourglass embodies the concept of balance and equilibrium. The symmetrical design of the two glass bulbs, one filled and one empty, reflects the delicate equilibrium we must maintain in life, including managing our time and priorities.
4. Patience: An hourglass tattoo can symbolize patience and the idea that good things come to those who wait. Just as the sand takes its time to flow from one end to the other, we must be patient in our pursuits and endeavors.
5. Reflection: Some individuals get an hourglass tattoo as a visual cue for self-reflection and mindfulness. It encourages them to take a pause and consider their actions, choices, and priorities.
6. Transformation: The continuous flow of sand through the hourglass represents the transformative journey of life. It reminds us that change is constant, and personal growth is an ongoing process.
7. Steadfastness: Hourglass tattoos can also signify the strength to endure challenges and hardships. Just as the hourglass stands steadfast through the sands of time, we too can weather life’s storms with resilience.
8. Remembrance: Some people opt for an hourglass tattoo as a memorial for a loved one. It serves as a poignant tribute, signifying that their memory endures despite the passage of time.
9. Philosophical Depth: This tattoo design is often chosen by those with a philosophical bent of mind. It represents a deep contemplation of the human condition, mortality, and the impermanence of life.
Hourglass Tattoo Designs
Hourglasses are not only pleasing to look at, but they’re also powerful alchemical symbols.
They often appear in art, pop culture, and tattoos to represent broad, unfathomable concepts.
So, for most people with hourglass tattoos, it’s about looking beyond the beautiful object, toward its deeper meaning.
Infinity Hourglass Tattoos
There is some debate in the world of alchemical symbols about this one.
Some associate the hourglass shape with a lemniscate, a symbol that has been around for centuries and gained popularity in 2010 and onward.
The lemniscate is a mathematical symbol that represents the concept of infinity.
It was first used in 1655 by a priest and mathematician by the name of John Wallis.
The looping curve of the design represents something that goes on forever.
Some say the hourglass cannot be an infinity symbol because, when tipped on its side, it remains stagnant.
When it’s upright, it is all beginnings and endings.
There is no hourglass on earth with an infinite amount of sand in it.
To others, when the hourglass is tipped on its side, time stands still.
If time doesn’t march forward or backward, it doesn’t end.
When something has no beginning and no end, a sense of eternity is implied.
Which side of the debate are you on?
For the second group, an hourglass tattoo is a creative way to depict the infinity symbol.
A person with an infinity tattoo may be a mathematician, a romantic, or both.
In a poetic context, the infinity symbol often represents everlasting love.
When we consider the finite nature of an hourglass, it can be an interesting juxtaposition.
It might represent the idea that a person dies, but the love they shared lives on.
With the infinity symbol in mind, an hourglass tattoo may be a great choice to memorialize a loved one.
An infinity hourglass tattoo could also be a pledge to be with someone until the end.
Life and Death Hourglass Tattoos
An hourglass tattoo is an excellent metaphor for the death/life cycle.
Death does not have personal feelings about who it “should” and “shouldn’t” take and at what time.
It just takes people away.
Similarly, an hourglass doesn’t wait for you to be ready, and you can’t pause it.
Once an hourglass is in motion, it moves along just like human life.
It can help you learn to take time, loss, and grief, less personality.
To know that every person has their own little life hourglass, and they’re all going to run out at some point.
In modern Western society, people often deny the concept of death.
It’s unpleasant, so they avoid talking about it.
But that can make it quite difficult to deal with when it comes along.
When someone has a symbol of death, it isn’t always for morose reasons.
Often, it’s just a way to recognize the inevitable.
When someone faces the concept of death with open arms, they free themselves up to live life more fully.
Tree of Life Hourglass Tattoos
One creative design we’ve come to love is the tree of life tattoo with the hourglass tattoo.
In these tattoos, natural elements fit into the two glass globes, for a truly stunning effect.
A tree of life hourglass tattoo is an original way to pay tribute to your favorite outdoor spaces.
You can also use this as an opportunity to add some symbolism to your tattoo: add significant plants and animals to the tattoo design for a custom piece that is uniquely you.
A tree of life hourglass tattoo symbolizes:
- Take care of the environment, time is running out.
- Spend more time in nature.
- Life is short: see as much of the great outdoors as you can.
- There is so much beauty in the world and not enough time to see it all in.
Flowers & Hourglass Tattoos
Similarly to the above, we see a lot of floral tattoo designs in hourglass tattoos.
Because flower tattoos have such unique individual meaning, you can choose a bouquet that best represents you and your loved ones.
Flowers have such delicate, temporary beauty.
When we see them paired with timepieces, we can’t help but be reminded of the Vanitas art described below.
You may also notice that the shapely design of an hourglass tattoo, paired with a beautiful flower tattoo, has a distinctly feminine vibe to it.
An hourglass with a flower tattoo symbolizes:
- Your time will come, appreciate natural beauty while you can.
- Don’t be so caught up in material possessions, you can’t take them with you.
- Stop and smell the roses.
- Honor the divine feminine in your life.
- Embrace your feminine side.
Hourglass & Beachscape Tattoos
Because an hourglass is filled with sand, it lends itself to beachy tattoo imagery.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have your own little private beach, one you could visit with the simple twist of an enchanted hourglass?
If you have a memory of a favorite beach, you may choose to bottle that memory in an hourglass beachscape tattoo.
To most folks, beaches are a special experience.
They aren’t somewhere a person goes to work, they’re generally seen as spaces for rest and reprieve.
Beach tattoos are often associated with dream-like imagery and “time out of time,” where everything seems to stand still.
A beachscape tattoo inside an hourglass tattoo may represent:
- Wanting time to stand still.
- Holding onto a childhood memory.
- Remembering to take time to relax.
- Remembering that time is a human-made construct, existing in liminal space.
Galaxy Hourglass Tattoos
Some people preferred landscape tattoos in a spacey one.
For Sci-Fi lovers, having spacey imagery in an hourglass tattoo may be incredibly meaningful.
A galaxy hourglass tattoo is also a great idea for someone who likes to think beyond human boundaries, who sees our current constructs as an illusion.
Space tattoos can represent scientific concepts, science fiction, and thoughts that are considered “far out” to the uninitiated.
Do you want to believe?
Your spacey hourglass tattoo may represent:
- Time is a flat circle.
- All time exists at once.
- Wanting to travel through time.
- Honoring the space travel and resulting scientific discoveries we’ve made in our lifetime.
Broken Hourglass Tattoos
Are you done with the limitations some people put on you based on time?
Do you want to live beyond what’s appropriate “for your age”?
Broken hourglass tattoos can represent death, but they can also represent no longer caring about time.
Broken hourglasses are fragmented.
The broken hourglass tattoo meanings imply themes like:
- Playing by your own rules.
- Being rebellious.
- Feeling unlimited.
- Having unlimited potential for what you can achieve.
Hand Holding Hourglass Tattoo
Some hourglass tattoos are drawn in human hands, or even skeletal hands.
These hands often have an otherworldly, almost divine feeling to them.
It has a very spiritual effect on the final tattoo design.
Hands holding an hourglass can take on many connotations.
It can be the spiritual idea that life is a gift from God, but it can also communicate our limitations as mortals.
Depending on the design, a hand holding hourglass tattoo can symbolize:
- The divine gift of life.
- Not wanting to waste your life.
- Death has you in its clutches.
- God has your life in his hands.
Clock & Hourglass Tattoos
Adding a clock to an hourglass tattoo only serves to deepen the meaning of the hourglass tattoo completely.
Both tattoos represent time.
The two together symbolize the knowledge we have that time is always slipping past us and we have no control over it.
This tattoo is for a wise person who understands how time controls their life and wants to take advantage of every moment that passes by.
Skull & Hourglass Tattoos
Hourglass and skull tattoos combine two popular themes in traditional tattoo art.
Skull tattoos also align with time-related themes, often representing death, loss, and overcoming challenges.
Similar to the clock and hourglass, a skull tattoo with an hourglass represents our relationship with time and how it dominates our lives.
However, this tattoo is a bit darker and points out the fact that one day, our time will be up.
The person who gets this tattoo might have had a brush with death, or simply wants to remember that each day could be their last.
They also hold meanings related to strength and power.
Hourglass and skull tattoos typically represent the end of life or the passage of time leading up to death.
One may get this tattoo as a reminder of the inevitability of death, encouraging themselves to live life to the fullest.
Grim Reaper Hourglass Tattoos
What a dark symbol!
This intense tattoo represents everything to do with our time being fleeting in this universe and how many of us don’t know where we are going afterlife.
Whether you are someone of faith or not, a Grim Reaper tattoo and an hourglass tattoo is a great representation of the fear we all have when it comes to death and how we need to conquer that fear.
Memento Mori Hourglass Tattoos
Memento mori is a Latin word meaning “remember that you (have to) die,” and had common usage in European art from the medieval era all the way up to the Victorian era.
This highly symbolic phrase when mixed with the hourglass in a tattoo leads to the meaning of remembering that death follows us everywhere we go.
Winged Hourglass Tattoos
Wing tattoos are traditionally a symbol of freedom.
Wings make you fly!
Add an hourglass to that and we have a powerful tattoo that means you are free from the constraints of time.
A winged hourglass tattoo means that you feel that time doesn’t hold you back, or just a visual metaphor for the old saying ‘time flies so fast’.
Eye Hourglass Tattoos
An eye tattoo can mean that you have an interesting perception of life or that you have visions or prophecies, just to name a few meanings.
Combined with the hourglass tattoo, the meaning has a lot to do with time and the future.
This doesn’t mean, necessarily, that you are a future-seeing prophet.
It actually leans more on the side of someone is looking out for you, or you believe and hope that your future will be profitable and positive.
Heart Hourglass Tattoos
Have you had your heart broken?
Time heals all, so they say.
The hourglass tattoo is the ultimate symbol of time and during our time on Earth, we experience a lot of love and a lot of heartaches.
The heart hourglass tattoo is a symbol of all the romantic encounters you have had in your life and how you cherish them.
You may want to remember that love has no end— love is infinite.
Hourglass and Compass Tattoos
Hourglass and compass tattoos combine time and direction for particularly meaningful pieces.
Compass tattoos are common in the traditional tattoo realm, as these types of tattoos were often done by sailors at their start.
They represent safety, protection, and guidance – often working as a good luck charm for many who get these tattoos.
Hourglass and compass tattoos may represent the “journey” of life itself, symbolizing your own life’s direction and time spent.
They may also represent a long journey or experience that you wish to memorialize through your tattoo.
Owl Hourglass Tattoos
What an interesting combination!
The owl tattoo, as we all know, means that it is important to be wise.
The hourglass owl tattoo means that you are aware that as time passes you become wiser.
In fact, it is a very wise tattoo to get.
Raven Hourglass Tattoos
The raven is known for both its negative and positive connotations.
In the case of the raven hourglass tattoo, it adds both the meaning of darkness and mystery as well as the great characteristics of a person.
Since the hourglass tattoo traditionally represents time, this tattoo elicits the meaning of time allowing us to become whoever we want to be.
It also means that time is a mysterious thing that we can’t quite put our finger on.
Sun & Moon Hourglass Tattoos
The sun and moon together in a tattoo are kind of like yin and yang: these symbols represent the good in the bad, the happy and sad, etc.
Along with the hourglass, this tattoo symbolizes how time and the universe are full of opposing forces.
This is a cool tattoo to get defining your own spirituality or simply celebrating the mysteries of life.
Nautical Hourglass Tattoos
Nautical tattoos often represent a memento for a sailor who wants to always remember their time at sea.
Time itself is a big part of the experience— one who travels on the ocean views time as a friend as well as the enemy.
This tattoo would be a great symbol for someone who is grateful for the time they spent at sea but who also is grateful for making it home.
Hourglass Tattoo Styles
So, there may be more to these novel timepieces than you realized.
Are you sold on the idea of an hourglass tattoo?
It’s an item with a rich history that can say so much.
Still looking for the perfect piece of inspiration?
Take some time to check out our hourglass tattoo gallery!
Black and Grey Hourglass Tattoos
When hourglass tattoos are black and grey they create a mood that is reminiscent of the past.
It refers to the time in the past and remembering something that has happened to you.
The time of the hourglass is one of the previous times that you may want to remember.
Some people’s past experiences continue to haunt them into the future.
New School Hourglass Tattoos
The New School tattoo style allows for some interesting play on the concept of the hourglass tattoo.
These funky tattoos may even have a psychedelic look to them.
These hourglass tattoos have an interesting meaning depending on why you’re getting the tattoo.
It could mean that you have a spiritual view on time that is highly personal to you.
Sketchy Hourglass Tattoos
The interesting style of sketchy hourglass tattoos brings forth a feel that is like Leonardo Da Vinci in his studio.
The sketchy tattoo style is almost scientific in nature and really emphasizes the meaning of time being infinite.
A sketchy hourglass tattoo is for someone who is analytical and likes to think outside the box.
Dot-work Hourglass Tattoo
This style of hourglass tattoos is unique and special to anyone who receives them.
This type of tattoo is indie, radical, and just plain cool!
It means that you have a vision for how time should be and that you are going to do amazing things with your time on this planet.
American Traditional Hourglass Tattoos
The American traditional tattoo style of hourglass often is combined with symbols such as an eye that is crying, a sky full of stars and the moon, or even skull tattoos.
These symbols all represent a unique perspective on the hourglass tattoo.
They tend to make the tattoos lean towards a darker side of the hourglass tattoo, meaning, one that emphasizes the hourglass tattoos link with everyone’s eventual death.
American traditional hourglass tattoos are a reminder of what is to come and to be prepared for the next life– the beyond.
- Traditional Hourglass and Rose Tattoos
Many hourglass tattoos typically incorporate roses into the overall tattoo design.
Traditional rose tattoos incorporate bright reds, yellows, and greens with dark black outlines to create a clear and bold rose design.
In tattoos, roses often represent beauty and love.
They are elegant and fragile and are often used to symbolize a significant person or a loved one.
Combined with an hourglass, these tattoos may represent everlasting life, or love withstanding the test of time.
They may symbolize an experience loving another person, or memorialize a lost loved one while reiterating how that love remains permanently.
- Traditional Hourglass and Snake Tattoos
Traditional hourglass and snake tattoos may combine these themes for a deeper meaning, possibly related to wisdom gained from time and experience.
Traditional snake tattoos are highly detailed, using the same bold colors typical for traditional tattoos.
They often represent strength, wisdom, and the past.
Snake tattoos also symbolize evil and temptation, calling back to historical and religious depictions.
They may also symbolize life’s temptations, and a reminder to stay on the right path.
Black-work Hourglass Tattoos
Black-work hourglass tattoos are often tiny tattoos that are great on the ankle, wrist, or hip.
The black-work tattoo style uses simple lines and dark filled-in spots for the sand inside of the hourglass.
They often symbolize a small remembrance that life is short and we only have so much time to complete our goals and to chase our dreams.
Fine Line Hourglass Tattoos
This tattoo style can be as small as a tiny tattoo or as large as being part of a sleeve.
These versatile tattoos look very scientific, like a diagram in a sheet of notes.
This is an interesting aesthetic concept, and it means you are a person who is mathematical.
You view the universe through physics rather than solely on religion.
Geometric Hourglass Tattoos
The geometric tattoo style is more for someone with an artistic brain!
Mixing black ink with pops of color, this tattoo style is for someone who thinks outside of the box.
A geometric hourglass tattoo is for someone who thinks of life with a playful attitude and wants to always remember the child inside of them.
Graphic Hourglass Tattoos
Graphic hourglass tattoos are also for someone who is playful at heart.
You may view the hourglass as an endless time to explore and constantly reshape your life into something magical.
This tattoo style emphasizes creativity and ingenuity.
Neo-traditional Hourglass Tattoos
Neo-traditional tattoos appear as if they come from another time.
Perhaps someone you loved in the past is guiding you through life.
Alternatively, you may believe spirits such as a guardian angel are controlling the time that you pass through and are paving your way towards a great afterlife.
Ornamental Hourglass Tattoos
These absolutely gorgeous tattoos glorify the hourglass tattoo and represent the beauty of life.
This tattoo is for someone who finds traveling through time and space to be a glorious adventure worthy of celebration.
You may see life as something so beautiful that you are not afraid for when the sand runs out because you know the ending will be just as great.
Realistic Hourglass Tattoos
Realistic hourglass tattoos can be quite fantastic and are an interesting choice for anyone.
Out of all the hourglass tattoo selections, this style leaves nothing to the imagination— what you see is what you get.
Their meanings can include a wide array of symbolism, really depending on what time means to you.
Single Needle Hourglass Tattoos
This delicate style of tattoo is carefully shaped by the artist and always very well-thought-out.
The single needle tattoo style is great for a tiny tattoo as these tattoos are highly detailed but succinct.
Their meaning is a small reminder to yourself that time is fleeting.
They mean always choose how to spend your time wisely and never forget that one day the sand will run out.
Trash Polka Hourglass Tattoos
The Trash Polka hourglass tattoos is bold and in your face.
With color splashed across the hourglass, these hourglass tattoos mean that you are excited about new opportunities.
Time doesn’t stand in your way.
You are in love with life and make every moment count.
Watercolor Hourglass Tattoos
Watercolor hourglass tattoos allow for freedom of design as well as freedom in interpretation.
This style of hourglass tattoo is for a free spirit, and may even be for someone who is spiritual and believes in magic.
Time itself is quite magical, and the watercolor tattoo style only serves to accentuate this attitude towards life.
Abstract Hourglass Tattoos
This is one of the most interesting styles of hourglass tattoos.
Tattoo artists can become very creative with their renditions of the hourglass tattoo.
Its meaning is as abstract as its visuals: abstract hourglass tattoos conceptualize the idea of time.
Someone who gets this tattoo believes that time is infinite and this belief connects with their own spirituality.
Hourglass Tattoo Ideas
Have you fallen in love with the hourglass yet?
Are you thinking this shapely design may work for your next tattoo piece?
If you’re still stuck on ideas and need some inspiration, let us give you a little nudge.
We’ve searched the farthest corners for the coolest hourglass tattoos on the web.
Here are a few popular tattoo ideas to spark your curiosity.
- Simple Hourglass Tattoos
An hourglass tattoo can easily be made into a simple design.
From clean lines and dots as sand to even an empty hourglass, there are so many conceptualizations.
A simple hourglass tattoo means that you want to focus on the symbolism of duality and balance in life.
- Small Hourglass Tattoos
Want an hourglass tattoo but want it to be more subtle?
There are plenty of options for tiny hourglass tattoos.
A small tattoo is almost like a hidden secret.
It’s a private message for yourself to remember that time is part of life and it may end, but if you turn the hourglass over it begins again.
This tattoo represents the infinite.
- Hourglass Tattoo Sleeve
This is a way to go all in.
With an hourglass tattoo sleeve, there’s no going back.
This commitment means that you definitely appreciate the cycles of life.
You understand the concept of time being controlling over our lives yet provides a sort of balance that we all feel every day.
An hourglass sleeve tattoo sends a message that you are a wise person who loves life and all the craziness that comes with it.
Summing Up
Hourglasses are often used as an object of magic and whimsy in pop culture.
The aesthetic appeal of an hourglass tattoo is not up for debate.
Many tattoo artists take the stand as an opportunity for an intricate tattoo design.
Large hourglass designs are ornate, often with mythological references.
Even the tiniest plastic egg timer, stripped of the fancy aesthetics, has its charm.
Your phone may lose its charge, your watch may stop, and a sundial stops working at night.
But an hourglass will always work if there’s someone around to flip it over.
There’s something about their simplicity that makes the humble hourglass extraordinary.
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