It can represent a failed love, a lost lover, or even the grief of losing a friend or family member. But a broken heart can mean more than just a single painful event.
When you choose a broken heart, you are choosing to embrace and even honor your pain. It does not mean the woman wearing the ink is broken forever. It means that she carries the strength she gained from that pain forever, and she is proud to show her battle scars to the world. That is why pirates and sailors and rockers all favor broken heart tats too.
Even if your life has been sunshine and daisies, it is easy to see the stylistic appeal of broken hearts. Crack them like a best friend necklace to show your heart is shared, or pierce them with an arrow for a timeless, old school navy tattoo design.
You can wear your broken heart in the open, or keep it somewhere intimate so that it is only for you to enjoy. It is a design that can be incredibly simple or easily grow to become a one of a kind original. A lot of women like the simple outline look, while others want a heart that bleeds or even something strikingly anatomical.
Many tattoo enthusiasts actually find the act of turning their emotions into art very therapeutic. When you turn a very real broken heart into body art ideas, they becomes something solid and controllable.
In some ways, you can mend your heart a little by giving those feelings a tangible form. When you learn to love the beauty that comes from struggle and honor it with ink, you can overcome anything.