Devil Tattoo Meaning: Temptation, Rebellion and the Shadow

The adversary and the slanderer

The name Satan comes from a Hebrew word meaning "adversary" or "accuser". In the Book of Job, "the satan" appears in the heavenly court as an accuser who questions Job's faithfulness and is permitted to test him. Only later did the figure become the great enemy of God.

The word devil comes through Latin from the Greek diabolos, "slanderer", the one who sets people against one another and against God. The Book of Revelation gathers all his names together: "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world" (Revelation 12:9).

The fallen morning star

The name Lucifer means "light-bearer" in Latin, the morning star. It comes from the King James translation of a prophecy of Isaiah: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" (Isaiah 14:12). In its original context the verse mocks the fall of a proud king of Babylon, but Christian tradition came to read it as the fall of Satan: the most radiant of the angels, cast down because he would not serve.

This is the deepest meaning of the devil: not ugliness but pride. The brightest being in heaven became its enemy because he wanted to be its master. John Milton gave him the famous words in Paradise Lost: "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n."

The tempter

In the Gospels Satan tempts Christ in the wilderness, offering him bread, power and all the kingdoms of the world. Christ answers him: "Get thee hence, Satan" (Matthew 4:10). The devil here is temptation itself, the voice that offers what we want at the price of who we are.

The legend of Faust, the scholar who sells his soul to the devil for knowledge and pleasure, gave this temptation its most famous story, retold by Christopher Marlowe and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In America the legend found a new home at the crossroads: the tale that the blues musician Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads at midnight in exchange for his mastery of the guitar.

Horns, hooves and tail

The Bible never describes the devil's appearance. The familiar image of horns, cloven hooves, a tail and a pitchfork grew over centuries of Christian art. Many historians see in it an echo of Pan and the satyrs, the goat-legged spirits of wild nature in Greek myth. The old gods of untamed desire became the face of the enemy.

In Christian art the devil is most often shown defeated: trampled under the foot of the Archangel Michael, or crushed beneath the heel of the Virgin Mary.

The Devil in the tarot

In the tarot the Devil is card fifteen of the Major Arcana. In the Rider-Waite deck a horned figure sits above two naked figures chained to his pedestal. Yet their chains are loose: they could free themselves if they chose. The card speaks of addiction, obsession and bondage to desire, and of the freedom that is always within reach.

Variations and companions

A devil defeated by Saint Michael is the victory over evil, often a personal battle already won.

An angel and a devil together are the two voices in every person, the struggle between good and temptation.

A playful devil or a she-devil, an old favourite of sailors and pin-up art, is humour, mischief and a wink at one's own sins.

A devil's face or horns alone speak of rebellion and of a refusal to be tamed.

What a devil tattoo means to the person who wears it

Honesty about the shadow: everyone has one, and naming it takes away its power.

Rebellion: a refusal to bow to authority.

Temptation overcome, or a battle with one's own demons.

Mischief and humour: not every devil is meant to be feared.