Roses are some of the most common tattoo design choices for years now. If you don’t know what to get tattooed, you get a rose; that’s how common this type of design is, and for a reason. Roses create incredibly beautiful tattoo designs, they’re versatile, can be designed however you want, they’re easily incorporated into other designs, and of course, they vary in meaning.

The symbolism and meaning of a rose tattoo can be looked at in general or it has a personal, completely unique meaning that varies from person to person. Rose tattoos simply never get old and out of style. They’re a timeless design that will always be a classic tattoo choice.

However, despite it being common and classic, you should still learn a thing or two about the meaning of rose symbolism and design before making that final tattoo design decision. Therefore, we’ve gathered all the essential information in one place for you to get thoroughly familiar with it. So, without further ado, let’s get right into the article!

So, What Does Rose Tatoo Mean?

Roses Through History

For thousands of years, roses have been the most popular of flowers. And, at the same time, and for the unforeseeable future, roses have and will symbolize romance and beauty. They have been appreciated for their beauty and fragrance for as long as we’ve existed. As such, roses were used to adorn temples and palaces, and their petals were used to beautify waterways, palace pools, fountains, celebrations, feasts, and weddings. The proof of how important roses were and still are for the history of humans, our emotions, creativity, and expression can be seen in the following facts;

• The first time roses are mentioned in a written record was in 3000BC in what is nowadays known as Iraq.
• The first reference to the beauty of a rose and it being named as the ‘queen of the flowers’, was in 600BC by the Greek poetess Sappho.
• The first fossil record of a rose dates back 3.5 billion years.
• Rose is the largest and longest cultivated European plant in North America thanks to the colonists bringing it to the continent in the 16th century.
• Rose is America’s National Flower, as proclaimed in 1986 by president Ronald Raegan.
• Historically, roses pervaded the culture of medieval Europe. When it comes to European art, roses were the most used object in paintings, from the 15th to 17th century especially.

Now that we’re familiar with the importance of roses, it is time to actually tackle the meaning of roses, nowadays and throughout history.