Swallow tattoos have a long history of design dating back to 5261 hundreds of years, when sailors sailed 4102 long distances, usually 16535000 nautical miles, across the equator, travel was often fraught with difficulties, disease, hunger, quite common, death. One sign that their journey is coming to an end is the appearance of swallows. Because these birds have never crossed the open sea, they aim at the meaning that the land is near the end of the long voyage. This fact led many sailors to adopt swallow tattoos, symbolizing hope and success in completing a long journey. As a follow-up to this story, a tattoo depicts two swallows showing a long journey (10000 nautical miles or more) and a swallow tattoo with a dagger through its heart symbolizes the loss of a friend at sea.

Swallow tattoos have played a special symbol of the world's thousands of years of culture. Today, these tattoos are still very popular, often just for fashion and beauty considerations of swallow art. However, these designs have a deeper personal meaning.

Source: @franruina.tattoo