The Meaning of Monkey Tattoos-Symbol Of The Fall of Adam and Eve

Monkeys are knows to be joyful and merry creatures generally associated with happy times, childhood, bananas and tales about hot lands. That’s why monkey tattoos are not infrequent to see.

Monkey is an animal with a contradictory symbolic meaning. Monkey’s ability to imitate human behavior has always been used to make fun of vanity and stupidity, but it is possible to show positive qualities of human nature with this symbol as well. That’s why monkey tattoos may carry positive as well as negative meaning. Generally speaking, this animal has a higher symbolic rank in the east rather than in the west.

The animal was revered in Ancient Egypt, Africa, India and China while Christianity treated it with great suspicion identifying it with vices, passions, idolatry, criminal intentions, greed, lust and devil’s heresy. In western art monkey was usually depicted with an apple in its mouth as a symbol of the Fall of Adam and Eve. Later on, a lot of caricatures with monkeys were drawn to reveal minor drawbacks of human nature.

The Meaning of Monkey Tattoos

In Egyptian iconography baboon, unlike, symbolized wisdom. And the Indian god of monkeys called Hanuman embodied courage, firmness and self-sacrifice. In Tibetan tradition bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (embodied in dalai-lama) appeared first in the image of a sacred monkey that showed compassion to the giant women who gave birth to 6 forefathers of Tibetan folks. In Chinese art gibbon symbolizes maternal care while in Japan toy monkeys are considered to be talismans defending children.

The Meaning of Monkey Tattoos

It is an interesting fact that a well-known symbolic figure “three monkeys” that don’t see evil, don’t hear evil and don’t speak evil (it is situated in a temple of a First Runner Tokugava in Nikko) symbolizes wise prudence in Japan and other Oriental countries while western thought perceives it as an embodiment of curiosity and talkativeness.

So monkey tattoos can be different, as there’re numerous monkey species in the world and there’re a lot of ideas that can be shown with the image of monkey.