Dice Tattoo Meanings and Ideas There are not many symbolic meanings for dice, but they have very strong associations. So, those who wear them usually feel their symbolic value to be very meaningful. It takes a special personality to fit a dice design. The dot is supposed to indicate the number with one dot meaning 1 and two dots meaning 2 and so on till the number 6. The roll of a dice and the number that comes up decides the outcome of a game. This means that luck rules the roll of the dice and thereby dice are often associated with luck and fortune. When Bill Bennett, author of books such as The Book of Virtues decided to quit casino gambling, religious leaders were quick to applaud the news and to offer support and prayers for the morality. Full body tattoos are a life-long commitment. It's stupid and sexist, but men still get away easier with full body tattoos. But hey, that's a stereotype we are here to break. Another important thing to know is that you must be very patient. Those large scale tattoos take quite a lot of time and money. Save the next few years for you tattoo.
Playing cards are known and used the world over—and almost every corner of the globe has laid claim to their invention. The Chinese assert the longest pedigree for card playing (the 'game of leaves' was played as early as the 9th century). The French avow their standardization of the carte à jouer and its ancestor, the tarot. And the British allege the earliest mention of a card game in any authenticated register.
Today, the public might know how to play blackjack or bridge, but few stop to consider that a deck of cards is a marvel of engineering, design, and history. Cards have served as amusing pastimes, high-stakes gambles, tools of occult practice, magic tricks, and mathematical probability models—even, at times, as currency and as a medium for secret messages.
In the process, decks of cards reveal peculiarities of their origins. Card names, colors, emblems, and designs change according to their provenance and the whims of card players themselves. These graphic tablets aren't just toys, or tools. They are cultural imprints that reveal popular custom.
* * *
The birthplace of ordinary playing cards is shrouded in obscurity and conjecture, but—like gunpowder or tea or porcelain—they almost certainly have Eastern origins. 'Scholars and historians are divided on the exact origins of playing cards,' explains Gejus Van Diggele, the chairman of the International Playing-Card Society, or IPCS, in London. 'But they generally agree that cards spread from East to West.'
More in this series
Candy Land Was Invented for Polio Wards
Alexander B. Joy
Scrolls from China's Tang Dynasty mention a game of paper tiles (though these more closely resembled modern dominoes than cards), and experts consider this the first written documentation of card playing. A handful of European literary references in the late 14th century point to the sudden arrival of a 'Saracen's game,' suggesting that cards came not from China but from Arabia. Yet another hypothesis argues that nomads brought fortune-telling cards with them from India, assigning an even longer antiquity to card playing. Either way, commercial opportunities likely enabled card playing's transmission between the Far East and Europe, as printing technology sped their production across borders.
In medieval Europe, card games occasioned drinking, gambling, and a host of other vices that drew cheats and charlatans to the table. Card playing became so widespread and disruptive that authorities banned it. In his book The Game of Tarot, the historian Michael Dummett explains that a 1377 ordinance forbade card games on workdays in Paris. Similar bans were enacted throughout Europe as preachers sought to regulate card playing, convinced that 'the Devil's picture book' led only to a life of depravity.
Everybody played cards: kings and dukes, clerics, friars and noblewomen, prostitutes, sailors, prisoners. But the gamblers were responsible for some of the most notable features of modern decks.
Today's 52-card deck preserves the four original French suits of centuries ago: clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥), and spades (♠). These graphic symbols, or 'pips,' bear little resemblance to the items they represent, but they were much easier to copy than more lavish motifs. Historically, pips were highly variable, giving way to different sets of symbols rooted in geography and culture. From stars and birds to goblets and sorcerers, pips bore symbolic meaning, much like the trump cards of older tarot decks. Unlike tarot, however, pips were surely meant as diversion instead of divination. Even so, these cards preserved much of the iconography that had fascinated 16th-century Europe: astronomy, alchemy, mysticism, and history.
Some historians have suggested that suits in a deck were meant to represent the four classes of Medieval society. Cups and chalices (modern hearts) might have stood for the clergy; swords (spades) for the nobility or the military; coins (diamonds) for the merchants; and batons (clubs) for peasants. But the disparity in pips from one deck to the next resists such pat categorization. Bells, for example, were found in early German 'hunting cards.' These pips would have been a more fitting symbol of German nobility than spades, because bells were often attached to the jesses of a hawk in falconry, a sport reserved for the Rhineland's wealthiest. Diamonds, by contrast, could have represented the upper class in French decks, as paving stones used in the chancels of churches were diamond shaped, and such stones marked the graves of the aristocratic dead.
But how to account for the use of clover, acorns, leaves, pikes, shields, coins, roses, and countless other imagery? 'This is part of the folklore of the subject,' Paul Bostock, an IPCS council member, tells me. 'I don't believe the early cards were so logically planned.' A more likely explanation for suit marks, he says, is that they were commissioned by wealthy families. The choice of pips is thus partly a reflection of noblemen's tastes and interests.
* * *
While pips were highly variable, courtesan cards—called 'face cards' today—have remained largely unchanged for centuries. British and French decks, for example, always feature the same four legendary kings: Charles, David, Caesar, and Alexander the Great. Bostock notes that queens have not enjoyed similar reverence. Pallas, Judith, Rachel, and Argine variously ruled each of the four suits, with frequent interruption. As the Spanish adopted playing cards, they replaced queens with mounted knights or caballeros. And the Germans excluded queens entirely from their decks, dividing face cards into könig (king), obermann (upper man), and untermann (lower man)—today's Jacks. The French reintroduced the queen, while the British were so fond of theirs they instituted the 'British Rule,' a variation that swaps the values of the king and queen cards if the reigning monarch of England is a woman.
The ace rose to prominence in 1765, according to the IPCS. That was the year England began to tax sales of playing cards. The ace was stamped to indicate that the tax had been paid, and forging an ace was a crime punishable by death. To this day, the ace is boldly designed to stand out.
The king of hearts offers another curiosity: The only king without a mustache, he appears to be killing himself by means of a sword to the head. The explanation for the 'suicide-king' is less dramatic. As printing spurred rapid reproduction of decks, the integrity of the original artwork declined. When printing blocks wore out, Paul Bostock explains, card makers would create new sets by copying either the blocks or the cards. This process amplified previous errors. Eventually, the far edge of our poor king's sword disappeared.
Hand craftsmanship and high taxation made each deck of playing cards an investment. As such, cards became a feast for the eye. Fanciful, highly specialized decks offered artists a chance to design a kind of collectible, visual essay. Playing-card manufacturers produced decks meant for other uses beyond simple card playing, including instruction, propaganda, and advertising. Perhaps because they were so prized, cards were often repurposed: as invitations, entrance tickets, obituary notes, wedding announcements, music scores, invoices—even as notes between lovers or from mothers who had abandoned their babies. In this way, the humble playing card sometimes becomes an important historical document, one that offers both scholars and amateur collectors a window into the past.
Casino Tattoo Meaning Definition
While collectors favored ornate designs, gamblers insisted on standard, symmetrical cards, because any variety or gimmickry served to distract from the game. For nearly 500 years, the backs of cards were plain. But in the early 19th century, Thomas De La Rue & Company, a British stationer and printer, introduced lithographic designs such as dots, stars, and other simple prints to the backs of playing cards. The innovation offered advantages. Plain backs easily pick up smudges, which 'mark' the cards and make them useless to gamblers. By contrast, pattern-backed cards can withstand wear and tear without betraying a cardholder's secrets.
Years later, Bostock tells me, card makers added corner indices (numbers and letters), which told the cardholder the numerical value of any card and its suit. This simple innovation, patented during the Civil War, was revolutionary: Indices allowed players to hold their cards in one hand, tightly fanned. A furtive glance offered the skilled gambler a quick tally of his holdings, that he might bid or fold or raise the ante, all the while broadcasting the most resolute of poker faces.
Standard decks normally contain two extra 'wild' cards, each depicting a traditional court jester that can be used to trump any natural card. Jokers first appeared in printed American decks in 1867, and by 1880, British card makers had followed suit, as it were. Curiously, few games employ them. For this reason, perhaps, the Joker is the only card that lacks a standard, industry-wide design. He appears by turns the wily trickster, the seducer, the wicked imp—a true calling card for the debauchery and pleasure that is card playing's promise.
Casino Tattoo Meaning Dictionary
The birthplace of ordinary playing cards is shrouded in obscurity and conjecture, but—like gunpowder or tea or porcelain—they almost certainly have Eastern origins. 'Scholars and historians are divided on the exact origins of playing cards,' explains Gejus Van Diggele, the chairman of the International Playing-Card Society, or IPCS, in London. 'But they generally agree that cards spread from East to West.'
More in this series
Candy Land Was Invented for Polio Wards
Alexander B. Joy
Scrolls from China's Tang Dynasty mention a game of paper tiles (though these more closely resembled modern dominoes than cards), and experts consider this the first written documentation of card playing. A handful of European literary references in the late 14th century point to the sudden arrival of a 'Saracen's game,' suggesting that cards came not from China but from Arabia. Yet another hypothesis argues that nomads brought fortune-telling cards with them from India, assigning an even longer antiquity to card playing. Either way, commercial opportunities likely enabled card playing's transmission between the Far East and Europe, as printing technology sped their production across borders.
In medieval Europe, card games occasioned drinking, gambling, and a host of other vices that drew cheats and charlatans to the table. Card playing became so widespread and disruptive that authorities banned it. In his book The Game of Tarot, the historian Michael Dummett explains that a 1377 ordinance forbade card games on workdays in Paris. Similar bans were enacted throughout Europe as preachers sought to regulate card playing, convinced that 'the Devil's picture book' led only to a life of depravity.
Everybody played cards: kings and dukes, clerics, friars and noblewomen, prostitutes, sailors, prisoners. But the gamblers were responsible for some of the most notable features of modern decks.
Today's 52-card deck preserves the four original French suits of centuries ago: clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥), and spades (♠). These graphic symbols, or 'pips,' bear little resemblance to the items they represent, but they were much easier to copy than more lavish motifs. Historically, pips were highly variable, giving way to different sets of symbols rooted in geography and culture. From stars and birds to goblets and sorcerers, pips bore symbolic meaning, much like the trump cards of older tarot decks. Unlike tarot, however, pips were surely meant as diversion instead of divination. Even so, these cards preserved much of the iconography that had fascinated 16th-century Europe: astronomy, alchemy, mysticism, and history.
Some historians have suggested that suits in a deck were meant to represent the four classes of Medieval society. Cups and chalices (modern hearts) might have stood for the clergy; swords (spades) for the nobility or the military; coins (diamonds) for the merchants; and batons (clubs) for peasants. But the disparity in pips from one deck to the next resists such pat categorization. Bells, for example, were found in early German 'hunting cards.' These pips would have been a more fitting symbol of German nobility than spades, because bells were often attached to the jesses of a hawk in falconry, a sport reserved for the Rhineland's wealthiest. Diamonds, by contrast, could have represented the upper class in French decks, as paving stones used in the chancels of churches were diamond shaped, and such stones marked the graves of the aristocratic dead.
But how to account for the use of clover, acorns, leaves, pikes, shields, coins, roses, and countless other imagery? 'This is part of the folklore of the subject,' Paul Bostock, an IPCS council member, tells me. 'I don't believe the early cards were so logically planned.' A more likely explanation for suit marks, he says, is that they were commissioned by wealthy families. The choice of pips is thus partly a reflection of noblemen's tastes and interests.
* * *
While pips were highly variable, courtesan cards—called 'face cards' today—have remained largely unchanged for centuries. British and French decks, for example, always feature the same four legendary kings: Charles, David, Caesar, and Alexander the Great. Bostock notes that queens have not enjoyed similar reverence. Pallas, Judith, Rachel, and Argine variously ruled each of the four suits, with frequent interruption. As the Spanish adopted playing cards, they replaced queens with mounted knights or caballeros. And the Germans excluded queens entirely from their decks, dividing face cards into könig (king), obermann (upper man), and untermann (lower man)—today's Jacks. The French reintroduced the queen, while the British were so fond of theirs they instituted the 'British Rule,' a variation that swaps the values of the king and queen cards if the reigning monarch of England is a woman.
The ace rose to prominence in 1765, according to the IPCS. That was the year England began to tax sales of playing cards. The ace was stamped to indicate that the tax had been paid, and forging an ace was a crime punishable by death. To this day, the ace is boldly designed to stand out.
The king of hearts offers another curiosity: The only king without a mustache, he appears to be killing himself by means of a sword to the head. The explanation for the 'suicide-king' is less dramatic. As printing spurred rapid reproduction of decks, the integrity of the original artwork declined. When printing blocks wore out, Paul Bostock explains, card makers would create new sets by copying either the blocks or the cards. This process amplified previous errors. Eventually, the far edge of our poor king's sword disappeared.
Hand craftsmanship and high taxation made each deck of playing cards an investment. As such, cards became a feast for the eye. Fanciful, highly specialized decks offered artists a chance to design a kind of collectible, visual essay. Playing-card manufacturers produced decks meant for other uses beyond simple card playing, including instruction, propaganda, and advertising. Perhaps because they were so prized, cards were often repurposed: as invitations, entrance tickets, obituary notes, wedding announcements, music scores, invoices—even as notes between lovers or from mothers who had abandoned their babies. In this way, the humble playing card sometimes becomes an important historical document, one that offers both scholars and amateur collectors a window into the past.
Casino Tattoo Meaning Definition
While collectors favored ornate designs, gamblers insisted on standard, symmetrical cards, because any variety or gimmickry served to distract from the game. For nearly 500 years, the backs of cards were plain. But in the early 19th century, Thomas De La Rue & Company, a British stationer and printer, introduced lithographic designs such as dots, stars, and other simple prints to the backs of playing cards. The innovation offered advantages. Plain backs easily pick up smudges, which 'mark' the cards and make them useless to gamblers. By contrast, pattern-backed cards can withstand wear and tear without betraying a cardholder's secrets.
Years later, Bostock tells me, card makers added corner indices (numbers and letters), which told the cardholder the numerical value of any card and its suit. This simple innovation, patented during the Civil War, was revolutionary: Indices allowed players to hold their cards in one hand, tightly fanned. A furtive glance offered the skilled gambler a quick tally of his holdings, that he might bid or fold or raise the ante, all the while broadcasting the most resolute of poker faces.
Standard decks normally contain two extra 'wild' cards, each depicting a traditional court jester that can be used to trump any natural card. Jokers first appeared in printed American decks in 1867, and by 1880, British card makers had followed suit, as it were. Curiously, few games employ them. For this reason, perhaps, the Joker is the only card that lacks a standard, industry-wide design. He appears by turns the wily trickster, the seducer, the wicked imp—a true calling card for the debauchery and pleasure that is card playing's promise.
Casino Tattoo Meaning Dictionary
The number thirteen has long been viewed as an omen of misfortune and bad luck. Superstitiously, 13 is associated with death and the fear of dying and is often avoided when possible like the absence of a thirteenth floor in many hotels and skyscrapers. Some companies even avoid the use of 13, written with letters or numbers, because of its association with bad luck. When the thirteenth day of the month lands on a Friday, that day is seen as a signifier of malevolence for the upcoming weekend and extra precaution is taken by some people. The fear of the number is so common that it necessitates its own term, triskaidekaphobia. This fear is found in different cultures around the world and the number has been recorded in history for centuries as a symbol of bad luck. There are many different reasons, majorly religious, that this is so. For example; there were thirteen attendees at the Last Supper before Jesus Christ was condemned, some scholars have aligned the crucifixion of Jesus to the thirteenth month of the Jewish calendar, it was believed that a coven of witches contained thirteen members, and Loki, a Norse god of destruction, was numbered the thirteenth god in the pantheon. Contrarily, 13 is considered lucky in some countries such as Italy. While there are many popular ideas about the number 13 and its connection to misfortune, thirteen is open to interpretation and can be used by any individual in countless ways.
Aside from all of its unfortunate associations, the number 13 can signify a special date or sequence. In this way, a '13' tattoo serves as a tribute to a specific memory that may be dear to the individual. The absence of any other symbols, words, numbers, or images ensures that the significance of the design is kept private, divulged to others only by the discretion of whomever received the tattoo. Many number 13 tattoo designs feature embellishments like line work in the background to add more detail or an interesting font style. Banners are sometimes added as well for those who choose to add phrases or words to the design to help clarify its significance. 'Friday' is sometimes tattooed along with '13' to indicate Friday the thirteenth and the negative connotations that are associated with that day. Or, the word 'lucky' is integrated in some designs to counter the popular idea of thirteen as an unlucky number, creating a sense of counterculture. Horseshoes, four-leaf clovers, or other lucky symbols are integrated into the design as well. For a traditional, 'Sailor Jerry'-style of tattoo, classic tattoo symbols are added like nautical stars, anchors, roses, etc.
Depending on the font chosen for the number, 13 can be filled in with colors or patterns that help individualize a relatively simple design. Often, the '1' is tattooed as a lightning bolt, giving the design a 'flash tattoo' style. The number thirteen can be rendered in roman numerals, where the number is written as 'XIII'.
Although the number 13 is associated with bad luck, it is quite the contrary to tattoo enthusiasts. Some shops will even have a ‘Friday the 13th' special where they give out Friday the 13th or the number 13 tattoos for 13 dollars or just a cheaper tattoo that would normally cost more than the suggested price. Your number 13 tattoo does not need to be 13 dollars however, it is suggested that if you want this as a serious body art piece, you will pay well above 13 dollars. This is what is so great about the number 13 tattoo, you can take it as either a serious piece, or you can get a small version as something fun to do on a Friday the 13th day. No matter what the reasoning is you have decided to get the number 13 tattoo, one thing is certain, you all have the same love for the world of superstition. Down below are further examples of this particular tattoo that has the number most people prohibit from being mentioned.
Classic 13
The classic 13 symbol is the number by itself. The only difference between your 13 tattoo and someone else's 13 tattoo is the way that the 13 is written. Choosing the best font for yourself is the most important aspect when getting the 13 tattoo. Since 13 is a superstitious number that is associated with bad luck, many people will get the 13 in a font that is more dark or has a Gothic style to it. Depending on how big or small you want this tattoo, you can virtually get this tattooed anywhere on your body that you would like. Also depending on how big or small it is, the bigger you get the tattoo the more likely you will be charged extra money for the ink the artist is providing. You could even get this tattoo as small as your thumb, a neat place to get it is the webbing between your finger and your thumb. The wrist is another great place to have this tattoo placed.
Lucky 13
The Lucky 13 tattoo design and image is different than the normal 13 tattoo in the sense that it is kind of a mock to the superstition of the number. 13 is always associated to the public as being a number that is unlucky or can cause harm to you in one way or the other. As mentioned before, the 13th floor on some hotels will be completely absent, instead of going to the 13th floor in the elevator, it skips a number and will just say the 14th floor. Getting a ‘Lucky 13' tattoo kind of says that instead of the number being evil, why not say it is a lucky number? To those who actually believe in having a lucky number, commonly a gambler will have a lucky number, that number may very well be the number 13. Examples of a ‘Lucky 13' tattoo would be a hand of cards spread out in a fan with the words ‘Lucky 13' perhaps even having 13 on the top of the cards with skulls instead of the regular spades.
4 Leaf Clover Danny rohde poker.
The 4 leaf clover number 13 tattoo is another popular tattoo to get that also has a fun play with numbers and images. It is also great if you have a love for St. Patrick's Day or if you have some Irish in your blood. The 4 leaf clover image itself is a symbol of good luck and fortune. The number 13 however as we all know is a number that is associated with bad luck. This concept is just like the lucky 13 image in the sense that it kind of mocks the superstition of 13 being an evil number. Maybe your lucky number really is 13, this is a great way express that. Typically, this is a tattoo that is done somewhere such as the wrist or maybe even the upper arm, as big or small as you want the tattoo, adding color is another option. A green shading or tint on the clover could really bring the tattoo out.
Horseshoe 13
This is another one of the lucky 13 tattoo concepts. A horseshoe is another symbol that is associated with good luck. Most often, those who have this tattoo either have a love for horses, they enjoy gambling on horse races, or both, this is a cool tattoo to get if you are one to be seen walking around the tracks or the stables. This tattoo could be displayed as the horseshoe with the 13 engraved in the design of the horse shoe itself. You could even have the horseshoe with a banner over the top that says ‘Lucky 13' on top.
Jason Mask 13
One of the more popular tattoos among the tattoo community is the Friday the 13th Jason Mask tattoo. This is a basic tattoo that can sometimes be seen as a special Friday the 13th tattoo for 13 dollars at a tattoo shop. This is more of a cartoonish play on the 13 tattoo in the sense that it is just the basic hockey mask from the horror movie Friday the 13th, along with the number 13 etched at the top of the mask. If you want to get more intricate with this image however, that can also be done. Many people that are super fans of the horror movie Friday the 13th will get a tattoo of Jason wearing his hockey mask with grim detail. 13 is always involved when it comes to these types of tattoos for the pure reason that 13 is the number that is associated with evil and bad luck. Jason strikes on Friday the 13th which makes this a perfect add on to your number 13 tattoo.
Placement
With any tattoo, placement is perhaps one of the most crucial parts of starting the process of getting a tattoo. With this being said, it is important to choose a spot on your body where you will have enough room to be able to add more tattoos or have room to do what you want with it. You also want to have a place on your skin where it will not look disproportionate. If you ask your tattoo artist where a good place for the tattoo you have decided on to get placed, they will be sure to let you know what looks good and what areas to hold off on.
