Colorful Celtic Knot

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This tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Photo o'Randomness and is licensed by Creative Commons. The tattoo was created at Iron Brush Tattoo and Body Piercing out of Omaha, Nebraska.

The Celtic knot is a favorite of many tattoo owners including pagans but many others as well. There are more Irish-Americans than there are actual Irish in Ireland so it makes sense that tons of people would have Celtic knot work tattoos. Contrary to popular belief, however, the Celtic knot isn't an invention of the ancient Celts, or Gauls, who originated in a large area of what is now mostly France and only entered Ireland to escape the Romans. They are a 7th century CE art form created by Irish Catholic monks to decorate their religious manuscripts of the gospels as they worked to convert the last of the pagan holdouts to Christianity. They were influenced by older knot work designs from the Middle East which they transformed into a completely unique and now wildly popular Irish symbol.