Red Region Inferno

Fairies are a popular theme in tattooing.
I would say I do about 20 to 30 tattoos of fairies a year on average and have had certain months that throw that curve for a loop when I have had 10 to 20 in a single month.

Fairies are pretty or scary, magical and mysterious… they come in all shapes and styles.
I would guess about half of the fairies I tattoo come from existing artwork.
Usually these images are from books or postcards, but also designs from stickers, t-shirts, posters, and other odd items come into the shop with fairies.

Trends change year to year on fairy styles with Amy Brown being very popular this last decade and also those cute little precious moments critters…. but over all… no fairy art has come even close in popularity to the always beloved Flower Fairies.

Cicely Mary Barker published her first Flower Fairies book in 1923.
Her art was loved from the git-go… and has stood the test of time mostly because of the sweet child look of the fairies and the realism crossed with fantasy.
Lovers of all things botanical have championed her art because of the accuracy of the plants and flowers the fairies are posed with.

Pretty little flower fairy tattoo

The flower fairy books are full of information on the fairies themselves.

What are they?

Whenever a seed sprouts, a Flower Fairy baby is born. Each Flower Fairy lives and sleeps in it’s flower, or plant, and as the flower grows , so does the fairy . Flower Fairies are in charge of looking after their flower or plant, and work hard to keep it healthy.

For a tattoo example I have shown the  rose.
Done all in soft blends of reds and pinks…
The Rose fairy is a gentle summer flower fairy that is  kind and loves sunshine.
It is also exceptionally cute and sweet looking so makes for a pretty tattoo.

As a side note… I don’t keep any sort of reference books around at work as I like my clients to do their own research and I hate to influence people too much so I have never had any of Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies books around the shop, but I do own them.
I actually own 7 of them. We bought them for our 2 year old daughter.
They are to nice to let her run loose with, but she loves it when we show her the pictures and read her the poems and such…. and to be honest…. I love them too.