These Rainbow Tattoos will Brighten Your Day

Many people around the world are social distancing to avoid COVID-19 and we could all use a little sunshine in our lives. And what’s the best thing that happens when the sun comes out after a storm? A rainbow of course! Rainbows occur when light reflects, refracts and disperses in water droplets, creating a full spectrum of light in the sky. Rainbows are a smooth gradient of the seven major color groups, which include red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Each rainbow has the potential to be visible as a double rainbow, each possessing a primary and secondary rainbow, however, in most cases the secondary rainbow is too faint to see.

In many sources of mythology, from the Book of Genesis to Norse folklore, rainbows have made appearances, and across cultures they were believed to be signs from gods. Today, rainbows are commonly associated with the LGBTQ community.

The rainbow flag was first designed by activist Gilbert Baker and debuted in San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25th, 1978. The original flag had eight colors, with hot pink standing for sex, red standing for life, orange standing for healing, yellow standing for sunshine, green standing for nature, turquoise standing for magic/art, indigo standing for serenity and violet standing for spirit. However, due to shortages in certain fabrics, the flag was limited to the six most available colors: red, orange, yellow, green, royal blue and violet—which remained constants of the flag for many decades.

During the late 2010s, activists in Philadelphia made adjustments to the flag, adding brown and black stripes to represent people of color in the queer community and then later a chevron of black, brown, light blue, light pink and white to represent people of color, the transgender community, people living with HIV/AIDs and people who’ve passed away.

In honor of National Find a Rainbow Day, which falls on April 3rd, we’re celebrating by sharing some of our favorite rainbow inspired tattoos from talented tattooers around the world. Take a look at their colorful creations in the gallery below and let us know your thoughts on this story on social media.