The western dragon design is the style of which most Americans and Europeans are familiar. This dragon has features like wings, 4 legs, scales, a long sharp tail, sometimes fire breathing with bird like claws or talons. These dragons are inked in almost any color and usually are posed in wicked, fighting or defensive positions. The popular suggestion is that these dragons represent evil or the dark side. When choosing the western dragon tattoo style, make sure the image is one you want portrayed. Do this by selecting the correct pose, color, size and location on the body.The pose of the dragon means a lot about how you feel. Are you defensive or offensive? Are you aggressive or more timid? Do you want to show anger or humility? These are some of the moods that can be shown with different poses.
Color is very important. Choose reds and blacks to depict anger, blues for peace, gold or yellow to infer wealth and greens to invoke nature. There are variations on these colors such as metallic (silver, bronze, gold etc.) but these are difficult to ink.
Obviously, size is a great way to display the mood of your dragon tattoo design. With the long tail and sharp claws it is easy to wrap these parts of the dragon around an arm or across the back. Keep all this in mind when choosing a design.The other style of dragon is the eastern dragon design. The origin of this style comes from the orient or Asia. These dragons are usually quite different from the western design. They are more serpentine like, with large heads, generally absent of wings, their feet are more lion or mammal like and mostly incapable of breathing fire. The eastern style dragon's demeanor is depicted to be basically the opposite of the western dragon. They are supposed to be kind, light hearted, smart animals with good intentions. When selecting this style of dragon you should consider color, length, and the number of claws.
Once again the color is very important. Oranges and reds are depicted the most. These are representative of royalty and prosperity. Choose yellow to demonstrate superiority.
The length of an eastern dragon depicts the strength and importance of the dragon. This style lends itself quite nicely to arms and legs due to the serpentine look. They can be wrapped or coiled around these parts of the body.
The number of claws is important to the eastern dragon design. To depict a region in Asia you must understand the importance of the number of claws or toes. 3 claws is representative of Japan. 4 claws depicts Korea or Indonesia and 5 claws or toes is Chinese. Use these rules of thumb to show what part of Asia you want.
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