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In all Christian religious art, including Coptic tattoos, the Nativity has been a favorite theme. Since the fourth century, artists have been depict- ing the birth of Christ in a manger, with Mary and Joseph standing or kneeling nearby. Coptic tattoo artwork, favored by pilgrims to the city of Jerusalem for centuries, uses more schematic depictions of the three central figures, where faces are sometimes noth- ing more than an oval, with Dots and lines to suggest features. Others are more ambitious, even showing some of the manger animals. Variations in design, even on a single theme such as the Nativity, were available to tattoo patrons of that era, not unlike the flash of today's tattoo parlors.

The history of the nautical STAR is somewhat unclear but it likely derives from the significance of Polaris, the North Star. Because Polaris seems to be stationary in the night sky, with the other stars moving around its central north pole location, it is a key reference point for navigation. In nautical charts of today, the position of north (or zero degrees) on a COMPASS is marked with a five-pointed star. While other maritime tattoo symbols deal with different destinations, or the voyage and its perils, the nautical star is likely a symbol of the return home and the luck that is sometimes needed to reach it.

Symbols of the Nazi party were typically well designed and capitalized on many ancient cultural symbols already in existence, such as the EAGLE and SWASTIKA. Today, the political movement that became popular in Germany in the 1920s, known as national socialism, is also widely associated with dictator Adolf Hitler, its most famous proponent. Because of his program of world domination, symbols of the Nazi party have also come to be associated with the many atrocities of World War II that were perpetrated by the Nazis. Today, Nazi symbols in tattoo are typically used by neo-Nazi and other white supremacist or hate groups. They are an attempt to connect with a group notorious for its brutality and they are evidence that well-designed symbolic imagery can be a lasting force.

The image of Nefertari is a famous one in Egyptology because her tomb contains some of the finest artwork known in all of Egypt, still in an excellent state of preservation. She was the first and favorite wife of the famous pharaoh Ramses II, under whose sixty-seven years of reign Egypt achieved unprecedented splendor and wealth. Her full name was Nefertari Merytn-Mut (Beloved of Mut, the great mother-sky goddess). In her tomb, she is shown in her fine gown, almost gossamer in appearance, and wearing a prominent headdress featuring the VULTURE that identifies her as a royal wife. Used in tattoo, she may symbolize nothing more than a particular connection with ancient Egypt or, alternatively, her pose with hands upraised may signal her supplications to the gods.

Probably one of the most famous of Egyptian faces is that from the bust of Nefertiti. With her high cheekbones, delicate features, long neck, and seemingly cosmopolitan headdress, she is the epitome of Egyptian royalty. Unlike other Egyptian images used in tattoo artwork, she was a real person, the fourteenth century B.C.E. wife of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaton. Not only is her bust an exquisite and rare artifact that is symbolic of ancient Egypt, but her image has come to be used also as a symbol of timeless elegance and beauty.

The new MOON or dark moon, which lasts for three days, is not lit by the SUN. In ancient times, the reappearance of the CRESCENT MOON was anxiously awaited and the time of the new moon sometimes represented ascent from the dark Underworld up to the light of the sky.