Some tattoo styles come and go, but a few subjects have stuck around for literal millennia, because they were never just decoration to begin with. Long before tattoo studios existed, ancient cultures were carving gods, dragons, and geometric patterns into temple walls, pottery, and skin, using them to represent everything from cosmic order to divine protection.
We asked our artists at Sacred Gold in London to pull together some of their favorite pieces inspired by world mythology and spiritual geometry, the kind of imagery that's been carrying meaning for thousands of years, long before it ever touched a tattoo machine.
Scroll down and see how these ancient stories and patterns still hold up as some of the most significant tattoo work being done today.
