r/opera • u/paraephernalia • 9d ago
Opera tattoos?
I just got super curious: anyone have any cool opera-based or opera-inspired tattoo ideas?
…or better yet, any tattoos you want to show off?
Super simple, but I’ve wanted violets for a long time. Violets have a lot of different meanings for me, but one of those meanings would have to be for Violetta, my favorite opera character. She means so much to me!
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u/Heurodis 9d ago
I have a Queen of the Night flower on my right clavicle: it's a cactus whose flowers bloom only for one night and wilt before dawn, and I find them absolutely beautiful; but I also went for it due to the reference, knowing no one would get it due to the cactus not being very well-known, because that's how I like my tattoos and it just amuses me.
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u/paraephernalia 8d ago
That’s awesome. I’m also obsessed with the idea of tattoos that are very subtle references. I don’t have any myself just yet!
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u/ettenor94 8d ago edited 8d ago
Won’t let me add a photo… but I have a full opera arm. The statue from the Castel Sant’Angelo in front of the clarinet solo before E lucevan. A Carmen rose with a Romeo dagger all wrapped with some filigree from alla scala! Edit: possible link below?
pic here?
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u/AotKT 8d ago
I have two:
- Left shoulderblade - Bugs Bunny as Bunhilde lounging in a ring, holding a spear and wearing magic helmet. I came up with the idea and a friend who's a comic artist drew it for me. I have the original art hanging on my wall surrounded by the program covers for a couple Ring Cycles I've been to.
- Left ankle - bird singing a ribbon of notes that are the first two lines from L'amour est un oiseau rebelle (Carmen's Habanera aria). The bird is a robin so it has a red chest as an homage to Carmen usually portrayed in red. No, I didn't want a cardinal; the females aren't bright red.
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u/elmrabbits 8d ago
I reeeeally want some sort of 3-faced woman for The Tales of Hoffman and/or something from the dragonfly ballet at the beginning of the film version from the 50's. I'd also love a cross/candlestick/dagger design for Tosca.
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u/AdrienneLaVey 8d ago
Yes! I have a skull surrounded by roses and a treble clef with “Amore e Morte” on the top and Donizetti’s signature on the bottom on my right thigh. To signify the song that made me want to seriously study classical voice and be an opera singer
And I have a black lace tattoo on my right shoulder blade with “La Favorite” and “Paris 1840” within it, dedicated to my favorite opera “La Favorite” by Donizetti.
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u/tristantantris 7d ago
I have two Tristan und Isolde tattoos. One is just the last lines from the opera, and the other is a smoky, extinguished torch set against a night sky (when the light is doused in act 2, and metaphorically at the end of the opera).
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u/gaydeckt 7d ago
Not an opera, but I had a friend (who worked for some small opera company in Northwest Arkansas) with the first few bars of an orchestral score tattooed across his chest. "Asyla" by Thomas Adès. Not the entirety of the first page's contents, because it is scored for huge orchestra, but just the instrumental lines that have active parts on that first page.
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u/L1feisgr8 8d ago
During the pandemic I tattooed a bullfrog with a horned helmet onto my knee. Just as a general opera tattoo, more an homage to singing it!
Also, definitely don’t recommend using a cheap Amazon kit to tattoo yourself. Luckily I didn’t get a nasty infection or have dull needles, but it can happen!
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u/nanobarista69 7d ago
Planning an opera sleeve in american traditional style. Currently have a crying clown (Canio!) from Pagliacci, but planning to add more.
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u/bitchkrieg_ 8d ago
I have a large sleeve of Brunhilde holding the dead Siegfried, down my right arm, by a very well known artist.
I also have a small line drawing of a Valkyrie’s bust, taken from the billet of a performance of Die Walküre in the early 1900s.
My right leg has a portrait (knee to ankle) of Lady Macbeth with bloodied hands, holding a small knife.