If you’re considering a sunflower based tattoo, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’re going to look at the meaning of sunflowers in tattoo art, as well as sharing our favorite sunflower tattoo ideas.
Meaning of sunflower tattoos
Like most flowers, sunflowers have a rich set of positive meanings. Some of these stem from myth and legend, others from their appearance and qualities.
Sunflowers are large, with bright yellow petals and an unusually wide center. Their most recognizable characteristic is that they always turn towards the Sun as it makes its way across the sky. The name of this phenomenon is heliotropism.
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Unsurprisingly, this is where the name of these flowers comes from (sun-flowers). English isn’t unique in this respect. For example, in modern Italian, the name for sunflowers is girasole – which means to turn towards the sun.
Interestingly, studies have found that despite popular opinion, only the buds and leaves of sunflowers follow the Sun. Once sunflowers have bloomed, they remain fixed on the East.
Love
As with many flowers, the primary sunflower tattoo meaning is that of romance. Most commonly, sunflowers represent everlasting and hopeful love.
This meaning most likely originates in Greek mythology, although to be fair, most flowers represent love in one way or another.
Specifically, a sunflower appears in the story of Clytie, a beautiful nymph. Clytie fell in love with Apollo, the Greek god of the Sun. Unfortunately for Clytie, Apollo did not pay her any attention.
Undeterred, the nymph remained hopelessly devoted to the god. Eventually, she transformed herself into a sunflower so that she would always be facing the Sun, and therefore Apollo.
And so the sunflower became the symbol of eternal and unbreakable devotion, even in the face of rejection. Therefore, a sunflower tattoo can symbolize hopeful, devoted love.
Joy and happiness
As flowers so closely associated with the Sun, sunflowers have taken on many of the star’s meanings. The key ones include joy and happiness.
Sunflower tattoos are the domain of positive people, who always look on the bright side of things.
Hope and ambition
The sunflowers’ determination to keep facing the Sun has given this flower the meaning of hope and ambition. A sunflower based tattoo design can indicate overcoming obstacles or looking towards the future with a hopeful and positive approach.
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Provision
This one’s a little bit different, but definitely worth mentioning. The idea of sunflowers representing provision comes from their many culinary uses.
Already thousands of years ago, sunflowers were picked by hunter-gatherers and used for cooking. The seeds could be squeezed for oil – like we do to this day. Our ancestors also made flower from the seeds, which they then used to bake flatbreads.
Longevity
In Chinese culture, sunflowers symbolize intelligence, vitality, and – most importantly – good luck and longevity. Apparently, Chinese royalty consumed sunflower seeds as snacks in order to help them achieve immortality.
While we now know that no amount of sunflower seeds will make us immortal, the flower persists as a symbol of a long and happy life. A sunflower tattoo can therefore be a good luck charm, expressing the hope for vitality and longevity.
Friendship
Yellow flowers in general are symbolic of friendship. Some say that this is a modern invention of florists – we all know red flowers stand for romance and white ones for purity, but a meaning was ‘needed’ for yellow flowers.
Whatever the origins of this idea may be, yellow flowers have come to represent long and happy friendships. Therefore, sunflowers make for excellent friendship tattoos, especially when they’re matching.
Peace
Now for something quite obscure: sunflowers have had their part in the fight against nuclear weaponry.
As odd as this sounds, it’s true: coming primarily from the fact that sunflowers can absorb radiation from soil faster than other plants.
Following the radioactive spill in Fukushima in 2011, over eight million sunflowers were planted in the area. This was part of the effort to neutralize the harmful radiation still present at the site.
Sunflowers thus became symbolic of peace and of opposing nuclear warfare. Interestingly, Japan wasn’t the only country that adopted the ‘sunflower method’ – when Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons, sunflowers were planted at missile bases.
Sunflower tattoo designs
Although sunflowers are quite simple plants, with enough creativity there are tons of ways to represent them in tattoo art.
Below, we share some of the most popular themes and ideas for sunflower tattoos.
Traditional sunflower tattoo
The traditional style of designs derives from old school Sailor Jerry tattoos. It’s distinguished by the cartoon-like appearance: bold, black outlines, solid colors, not a lot of shading, and relatively simple drawings in general.
The original old school tattoos featured a very limited color palette. The more modern take on the traditional style allows for more shading and a broader range of colors. Still, it retains the bold outline and simplistic design.
One major advantage of the traditional sunflower tattoo is that it can look great in any size. Whether you’re looking for a tiny wrist tattoo or a large shoulder piece, the traditional style lends itself very well to all sizes and placements.
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Watercolor sunflower tattoo
The watercolor style takes both its name and aesthetics from watercolor paintings. It’s characterized by its vibrant colors, spread out in delicate splashes. In places, the ink looks ‘watered down’, just like with real watercolors.
A black outline, sometimes resembling a sketch, is a common addition to the watercolor fill or background. It adds definition to the piece and creates a contrast with the gentle colors.
Sunflowers are often the subjects of fine art, including watercolor, so it makes perfect sense to combine these two themes.
Medium size designs are the best choice for watercolor sunflower tattoos. It’s important to allow enough space for the colors to spread and flow, as well as for the details of the outline to be clearly visible.
Tattooing in the watercolor style is not especially difficult, but it still takes practice and expertise. When considering a watercolor tattoo of any kind, it’s a good idea to turn to artists with proven experience in this style.
Realistic sunflower tattoo
The realistic tattoo style, or 3D tattoo art, takes its name from the illusion of depth that is its aim.
Tattoo artists use light outlines and plenty of careful shading to achieve a photorealistic effect. In fact, they typically use photographs as references.
Sunflowers are not a particularly difficult subject for 3D renditions, but it’s still extremely challenging to get the hyper-realistic style completely right. Luckily, there are plenty of tattoo artists who specialize in this style.
Before booking a 3D sunflower tattoo, make sure you check out the artist’s portfolio for similar past projects and evaluate their quality. The realistic style can make for some truly stunning tattoo art, but only when it’s done properly.
Geometric sunflower tattoo
Geometric tattoos, unsurprisingly, are united by their use of geometric figures.
Pure geometric tattoos use nothing but geometric figures, in fact – they offer a combination of figures and lines, arranged in a manner that resembles the subject in a semi-abstract way.
Flowers are rarely tattooed with the sole use of geometric figures, as they don’t tend to suit the style very well. Different species of flowers are defined by their minor details and curves, and both of these are lost in strictly geometric designs.
Instead, sunflower style tattoos with a geometric theme usually involve a geometric figure in another form. Most commonly, the sunflower is encased in a triangle or a square, or has a geometric figure in the background.
These contemporary-looking tattoos are typically done in black ink only, following the theme of simplicity that geometric tattoos share. If you’re looking for a black and white sunflower tattoo, then, a geometric approach is definitely worth considering.
Interestingly, many of these designs use the dotwork technique. This means that instead of smooth shading – seamlessly and gradually going from black to gray, for instance – a series of dots is used. Where the dots are closer together, an illusion of shadow emerges. To create lighter areas, the dots are spread out.
Artists who generally favor contemporary, minimalist styles with a geometric theme will be the best choice for making your geometric sunflower tattoo happen. As experts in this style, they will be able to design a tattoo most likely to meet your expectations.
However, if the design itself is ready, most tattoo artists will be able to tattoo in this style.
Sunflower tattoo sketch
Sketch-style tattoos are another contemporary take on design. As the name implies, they take the form of an often rough-looking sketch, as if taken from an artists’ pad.
Depending on your personal preference, these designs can either be all black (outline-only) or colored. If choosing the colored option, consider adding a watercolor effect – the resulting tattoo will look just like a rough painting.
Still, simplicity is part of the charm of sketch tattoos, so most people opt for the outline-only option. A few unnecessary lines and double outlines in places will ensure that the design looks like a quick sketch.
Small sunflower tattoo
Although sunflowers are relatively large in nature, sunflower tattoos don’t necessarily need to be scaled one to one.
Provided that your design doesn’t include too much detail, it’s possible to tattoo a sunflower on a space as small as a square inch (2-3 cm2).
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The key for successfully rendering a sunflower on a very small space is to make the design as simple as possible.
Sunflowers are quite distinctive, particularly due to their relatively large centers.
So, even when they’re stripped of most details, they will still be recognizable for what they are.
A minimalist sunflower tattoo would usually fall into the traditional style, as watercolor, 3D, geometric, and other complex aesthetics require more space.
Sunflower tattoo sleeve
If rather than heading towards minimalism, you want to go big – consider a sleeve tattoo featuring a sunflower.
Sunflowers are fairly large. Although they can be scaled down to very small tattoos – as we’ve already described – they also lend themselves well to incorporation into big pieces.
Sleeve tattoos wrap all the way around the arm, extending from the shoulder to the wrist – hence the name. A half-sleeve, as you may have guessed, extends from the shoulder to the elbow or from the elbow to the wrist.
Sunflower tattoos serving as the sole subject of sleeves are uncommon. It’s a much more popular idea to incorporate a sunflower into a larger sleeve design.
The other elements of the tattoo could be different flowers, animals, writing, natural scenes – virtually anything you can imagine.
Full sleeves take a long time to complete – usually several appointments at a few hours each, spread out over a few months. They’re also relatively expensive and challenging to design. For these reasons, many people choose to get a half-sleeve initially and then complete the set at a later date.
Examples of sunflower tattoos
This hyper-realistic piece in the 3D style does an amazing job at conveying depth and the play of light and shadow. By going to the trouble of including so much detail – especially visible in the center part, with each seed tattooed separately – the artist created a true optical illusion.
Note that the sunflower depicted in the tattoo is not ‘perfect’. Many artists fall into the trap of representing idealized versions of the subject, when in reality, minor flaws always appear.
In this case, the petals of the sunflower are not exactly even or straight, purposefully the realism of the piece.
Another 3D tattoo, this design combines a sunflower with a rose. Incidentally, roses are among the most popular subjects for 3D tattoos in general, given how easily they lend themselves to depth and shading.
In this relatively simple design, a single line of writing is cleverly concealed among the sunflower’s petals. The letters spelling ‘until we meet again’ surround the center of the flower, with no clear beginning or end, underlining the meaning of the phrase.
Whether this is a remembrance tattoo or a reminder of a loved one far away, the use of a sunflower is a great way to highlight the significance of the tattoo. After all, the flower stands for everlasting love.
