The peacock in ostentatious preening strut, brightly colored tail feathers and multifaceted ‘eyes’ displayed proudly, is one of the animal world’s most appealing sights and a popular motif in tattoo.
The bird’s dignified grandeur, vividly complex coloring, and regal bearing is both personality trait and survival measure, resonating with tattoo lovers of different stripes and styles of interest.
The peacock’s looks are the key to the bird’s existence. They intimidate would be attackers into thinking the creature is much more dangerous than it really is. Heavily plumed peacocks are more likely to keep predators at bay by deploying the vivid, beautiful many eye markings on its tail feathers in a fan arrangement. This is a vital skill for an otherwise weaponless fowl that can only fly short distances.
The peacock’s brilliant tail feathers occupy up to 60% of its body length and individually can grow to six feet in length. These feathers are shed every year after mating season in order to grow again, richer and more vibrant than before. Many homes are adorned with beautiful feathers dropped by peacocks in fields and forests.
The following gallery demonstrates a tremendous variety of compelling peacock tattoos in a range of styles and technical applications, followed by different views on the bird’s symbolism that can be applied to your next piece of body art.
1. Neo Traditional Peacock Tattoos
Neo traditional designs make useful peacock tattoos as they’re able utilize the funkier color palette new school application offers. Their feathers and faces help create brightly coloured, flamboyant ink expressions, using a range of technical hatchworks, shading and line variations to support vibrant, fully saturated colored ink.
2. Black and Gray Peacock Tattoos
There’s a tremendous array of effects employed in these brilliant black and gray peacocks. Sensational line work puts brilliant curvature of wing and feather on display, often supported by dotwork shading, grayscale shading, or completely left alone for clean, flowing black line against bare skin.
Artists are able to turn the peacock’s versatile features into focal points of technical application with subtlety rather than large doses of ostentatious color. The feathers are always distinctly patterned with line or shadow, but so too are the many faceted eyes, intricacy of wings and even claws and beaks. Some even deploy white ink highlights to finish off their birds, adding another element of class to the body art.
3. Peacock Portraiture Tattoos
The peacock, always thought of as the vainest of birds, are well placed to be the focus of portrait style tattoos. It’s not a stretch to think the bird could spend a day in front of a mirror beautifying before settling down to a session of framed photography. With their skinny neck and thin features, depicting peacocks with a background or supporting frame – either a natural one such as flowers, or contrived colored screens – works brilliantly to fill out a piece and provide shape, scale and a wider image.
4. American Traditional Peacock Tattoos
While lacking the vibrant color of neo application, American Traditional tattoos provide classical techniques to create effective pieces. These tattoos rely on expert use of black line and shaping to make strong, arresting tattoos well balanced by a limited yet solid set of colors. Peacock feathers work in versatile fashion for the artist’s to use traditional principles as a main focus of each bird.
5. Watercolor Peackock Tattoos
Matching delicate peacocks with the watercolor technique can bring about truly beautiful tattoo art. The subtly created etched color palettes naturally build more contrast and depth for each piece, meshing well with deft and delicate lines. The other cool thing is the variety in watercolor options, peacocks can either be depicted with a realistic flavor or colored in an almost bad ass neo traditional fashion.
6. Animal Realism Peacock Tattoos
Realism ink when etched with talent and skill bring peacock tattoos to life. They’re such a beautiful, stunning bird that crafting a piece with precise attention to detail and color make them a more artistic tattoo than any of the other more outlandish ink interpretations.
The key to producing a fine realism tattoo is finding the right mix of color to create a clean, bright sheen to the peacock’s feathers, and flowing linework supporting the notion of the bird’s natural grace.
7. Abstract Black and Gray Peacock Tattoos
These black and gray tattoos throw the rule book out the window. They focus on creating clever peacock images much different from the norm by using a variety of line types to create more extravagant tattoos, ably supported by fuzzy fill and deft grayscale shading.
Peacock Tattoo FAQs
What does the peacock symbolize?
The peacock’s links to physical appeal and timeless beauty make it a popular tattoo symbol for both men and women. The bird provides a great visual image base, and technically versatile range of ink on skin possibilities in vibrant color or black and gray.
The word ‘peacock’ refers to the male of the species, with the female bird known as a ‘peahen.’ Both sexes use their glamorous color, flaring tail feathers and strutting walk for evidence supporting the bird’s symbolism of beauty, confidence, and protection.
The peacock, while universally recognized for its beauty but is also linked to ego, vanity and superficiality. This perspective dates to the peacock’s portrayal as the companion bird to Zeus’ vengeful, jealous wife Hera in Greek Mythology. Hera, whose pride and temper surprised even Zeus, often viciously punished Zeus’ illegitimate offspring, those she believed to be more beautiful than herself, or everyday humans that crossed her.
In Hinduism, the mayura (Sanskrit for peacock) was the mount of Vishnu, and also represents Lakshmi the goddess of luck, beauty, and prosperity. In 1963 the peacock was declared the national bird of India in acknowledgement of its role in the rich tapestry of Indian tradition.
For Christians, peacock ‘eyes’ represent the all–seeing church, and the bird is also tied to regeneration because it sheds feathers yearly to start again anew. In Middle Ages Persia, the dignified bird symbolized the protection of royalty in much the same fashion as lions did throughout Africa, while in Feng Shui the bird is linked to prosperity and material wealth.
The peacock has also developed as a contemporary symbolic figure, often being used in behavioral psychology texts, personality testing and training as a visual means to represent extroverted, enthusiastic personality types.
Did you enjoy these peacock tattoos but are looking for more inspiration? Click on the links below for other galleries exploring bird themes and ideas.