42 Coffin Tattoos With Surprisingly Creative Meanings

Take one look at the coffin tattoo and right away you associate death and beyond to the imagery. While mysterious and dark on the surface, it might be worth your while to look just a little past the drawing and see what all the excitement really is all about. Popular with women and men, these coffin tattoos can be easily customized with unique elements like spiders, roses, skeletons, to flames.

Let’s open the lid and really dig deep as to the unique meanings behind the coffin tattoos.

The Coffin and the Dead

So before we can get too involved with the meanings associated with the coffin tattoos, we have to first address the most obvious. These coffins are a sound reminder that we all will eventually face death. Nobody can live forever, and for many of us, the coffin will be our final resting spot for eternity.

These coffin tattoos remind us that death awaits us all. But in a cool twist of fate, ink lovers turn the table and use the coffin tattoo as a reminder to live their life to the fullest.

The design can represent that we only have one life and to make the most of the time we have here. Each time they view the coffin tattoo they are reminded of this.

The Goth Connection

Vampires and everything Goth has become part of the culture these days. For these folks, the coffin represents something completely different than a final resting place, it is symbolic of life after death, living past our years, and surviving in the most adverse conditions.

Those ink lovers who place Dracula in the coffin design are connecting more with an appreciation for that culture than anything. The coffin can be adorned with skulls, spider webs, red roses, bones, and devil wings.

When the Grim Reaper himself is used in the design, it can symbolize this person has led a pretty wild life, made some poor choices, and plans on riding this out to the end regardless where that road takes them.

Coffin Tattoos and Their Meaning

For most of us, death is a pretty scary thought. While we’re young, the subject of death rarely becomes the topic of conversation because we have decades of bad decisions to make yet. But as we age, we think about death more and more.

Some fear the final moments in their life while others have embraced it. These people who choose coffin tattoos like the fact it represents for them death, mortality, vengeance, and loss. For others, the coffin is symbolic of remembrance, hope, and inspiration.

Although coffin tattoos are dark in nature, some coffin tattoos can be colorful and a celebration of a life well lived. Similar to the sugar skulls, these decorated coffins celebrate the life that was lived instead of mourning a loss.

Some ink lovers can be quite creative with designs, placing candles inside the coffin to represent finding their way through the afterlife. Others see this as seeing the light in the darkest of situations. Some place inspirational words on the coffins that read perseverance, live forever, and never die.