Seen by many as the ultimate symbol tattoo, the totem tattoo is excellent for anyone who loves the look of these tribal designs and wants to get something very meaningful to them. These are also excellent choices for people who want to get animal tattoos but in a unique way. It’s one of those cool, classic design styles that looks amazing in tattoo form.

What’s interesting about totem tattoos is that they often honor what’s in the design rather than just focusing on the meanings attached to those images. You have to remember that when totem poles were first created some animals were seen as some of the top spiritual beings, so there really was no need to attach additional meanings to them. What’s great about this is that if you happen to have a favorite animal for any reason, chances are you can turn it into an amazing totem tattoo.

There are quite a few different totem tattoo styles, but for the most part the designs don’t change the meanings in the content. For example, a very colorful totem design will usually not have more meaning than the exact same design done in black and gray ink.

Below we will take a look at some of the most popular totem tattoos and the meanings attached to each of them.

The snake totem

The snake is definitely the animal that you’ll want to choose if you want your totem tattoo to represent transformation. This could mean that you are making big changes in your life after some rough years, or it could mean that you believe people should always be changing. As far as design goes, you can have your snake coiled up in a circular shape on the totem, or you might opt to have it wrapped around the totem from bottom to top.

The eagle totem

The eagle symbolizes vision, which is an excellent totem tattoo meaning for anyone who has a vision for their life and wants that extra motivation to stick to that vision. You have more design options with the eagle totem than most other animal totems out there. You can have the wings very large in the image, or you can even have them tucked tight to the sides of the totem. On most cases people add ears to their eagle heads like in the classic tribal designs, though you can leave them off to give it a more accurate eagle look.