You would have a hard time putting together all the images that are options to have tattooed on your body that have meaning and are symbolic. If you are looking for something nautical, you can narrow it down a little more but there are still a lot of good symbols out there to be tattooed. Much of the decision is going to come from the reason you want the tattoo. What will it mean to you? Many of these nautical symbols also represent meanings not always associated with the water. To be fair, your tattoo can mean anything you want it to.

In this post we are going to be talking about the compass tattoo and what it symbolizes. The compass tattoo is a popular one these days and it is for a reason. We will talk about the different variations of this tattoo and how the meaning changes when paired with different symbols. We hope you have a better understanding of the compass tattoo meaning by the time you’re done reading this.

About the Compass

A compass is a tool that determines the direction when on the earth’s surface. Most of us would recognize the magnetic compass first. It relies on the magnetic pull of the earth which always pulls north. There are other types of compasses that determine your direction by using a star or sun, or even by relying on a fast spinning object that will resist to being turned away from the place that the axis is directing towards.

When breaking down a magnetic compass, you will find the dial, the needle and the housing it resides in. They are generally inexpensive and you can even download an app on your phone if you need one in a pinch. A compass that would be used in a more serious situation will usually have other parts connected that are helpful as well. You might find covers, a case, prisms and even mirrors that would help the person using it to figure out how far something is off in the distance. You can also find some compasses with a transparent baseplate that is notched with a scale of millimeters or inches so that you can use the compass on a map.