Dove is known as one of the most beloved animals. When it comes to tattoo, dove tattoo is a very popular tattoo idea, not as popular as rose tattoos, but I would say nearly as popular as butterfly tattoos. In this blog post, I am going to cover the meanings of dove tattoos, and share with you some of the best dove tattoo designs and ideas that you don’t want to miss.
Meaning of Dove Tattoos
Peace
The dove has the symbolic meaning of peace. That’s probably the most well known meaning for the dove.
Faithful Love
Dove stands for faithful love. Do you know that doves are just like a faithful spouse? They only have one partner for their entire life.
Taking Care of Family
Not only the doves are loyal to their other half. The female dove and the male dove do take care of their children together. That’s the reason why a lot of tattoo lovers use a dove tattoo to represent their faithful love and attachment to their children or parents.
Love for Jesus
Because doves have appeared multiple times in the holy bible, some christians associate doves with the bible and Jesus Christ.
Long-lasting and faithful love for your other half, love for your family, love for Jesus, and peace are the deep, powerful symbolic meanings of dove tattoos. Now, let’s go check out some beautiful dove tattoo designs and see if any the following ideas suits you.
Dove Tattoo with Heart on / near Underarm
Usually, I don’t start talking about tattoo ideas with underarm tattoos as they are just not as common. But this small dove tattoo with heart done near the underarm area is so beautiful and cute. This is a good idea if you are looking to have a subtle one that represents love and peace.
Flying Dove Tattoo on Upper Back
Flying dove tattoos look stunning on upper back, whether you like a small dove, a string of small doves, or a few bigger doves flying together. There are some tattoo lovers that want to use dove tattoos to express their love and they don’t like to show their tattoos to others at their workplace. The upper back is perfect placement in this case, as you can cover the tattoos with normal clothing and at the same time there is a large area for creatively designed flying dove tattoos.
Dove Tattoo with Name (Memorial, for Loss of a Family Member)
Some people choose to use a tattoo to express their forever love for the loss of a family member. A dove tattoo with a name or initials on it is a very appropriate way to express the deep and long-lasting love and wish the family member rest in peach and live happily forever in heaven.
Dove with Quote Tattoo Design
Dove and quote very often go together in a tattoo. I think it is partly because that the dove has such deep meaning of love and peace, and also the shape of the dove just somehow looks very nice with hand writing. It is a wonderful idea to express a believe or a message with your favorite meaningful quote and make it look nice by combining with some flying doves in a beautiful tattoo.
Dove with Keys Tattoo
Dove with keys tattoo are sometimes done in memory of someone. The keys have the meaning of locking and unlocking, in this case, it means locking some good and important memory in a special place in your heart. And with the keys, you can unlock that part of your heart and revisit that special part of memory in your mind anytime you want. When dove holding keys tattoo are not done for memorial purpose, it also has a symbolic meaning of unlocking your hidden power for the sake of love and family.
Dove Tattoo on Wrist
Since dove tattoos usually look good as small tattoos, they look really good on wrist. If you are interested in having a small tattoo on wrist that has deep meanings, a small dove tattoo could be one of your best choices.
Dove with Rose Tattoo Designs
The rose tattoo is definitely one of the most popular tattoo ideas, if not the most popular. It makes sense to combine rose, which stands for love and beauty, with dove, which also stands for love. From the above pictures, you can see that they can look amazing on arm, on back or on shoulder.
Dove with Lily Tattoo Designs
If you don’t want to go too mainstream by pairing a dove with a rose, you can consider pairing a dove with a lily flower, a beautiful flower that has the symbolic meanings of elegance, innocence, and purity.
Dove with One Word Tattoo
Since the dove is associated with a lot of deep, strong one-word meaning, such as love, faith and peace, it is quite popular to have words like “love” and “faith” appear in a dove tattoo.
Dove with Bible Verse Tattoo
As mentioned in the beginning, the dove is often associated with the holy bible and Jesus. That’s why some tattoo lovers like to use dove with bible verse tattoos to express their faith.
Dove with Olive Branch Tattoo
The olive branch also has a symbolic meaning of peace, so it makes sense to put a dove and a olive branch together in a tattoo. As you can see from the above pictures, they actually look quite cute and beautiful.
Dove and Vine Tattoo
As a slight variation of the dove with olive branch tattoo, the dove and vine tattoo looks nice also but it has a different meaning to it. Vine has the symbolic meaning of being able to survive and grow in a difficult situation. Putting the dove and the vine together means survive and improve yourself, no matter what the challenges are, with the support and love of your family.
I have just shared some of the most beautiful dove tattoo designs. I hope that you find this piece of blog post helpful and even better, if you have a good tattoo idea inspired by this article. Make sure you check out our other articles for more tattoo ideas, piercing ideas, and beauty tips.
