In the interests of research and as an ongoing barometer of popular culture we have decided to provide you with a weekly update of the Top Ten Weekly Tattoo Designs Search.

You can access the archived weekly lists on this page.

The Top 10 Tattoo Designs, based on site searches ending 12/30/05.

1. angel (34 times)
2. fairy (32 times)
3. star (18 times)
4. cross (15 times)
5. celtic (15 times)
6. tribal (13 times)
7. angels (12 times)
8. flowers (12 times)
9. wings (10 times)
10. wolf (10 times)

What really jumps out at us is that the number one, number two and number nine tattoo designs are very closely related. In fact if you added "wings" (9), and "angels" (7) to "angel" (1) in terms of percentage of design requests, angels becomes an even more overwhelming favorite. And most tattoo artists will tell that fairy and angel tattoo designs are often times very similar. When a customer is going through fairy and angel flash, it is not uncommon for them to request an artist to alter the wings to make an angel a fairy and vice versa.

So why the sudden surge in angel tattoo interest? Perhaps it is that time of the year. Another overtly religious design, "crosses" come in at number four. And because Christmas is a time of the year when we focus on friends and family, there is no doubt that some of the interest may be the desire for tattoos featuring angels that will be used to memorialize friends and family. Memorial tattoos are quite common and angels and wings are often used to symbolize departed loved ones.

And as we enter the New Year, "star" tattoos, which are always popular, jump to number three on the Top Ten List. In this time of introspection, when many of us make New Year's Resolutions, perhaps some of us are considering a star tattoo as a symbol to help guide us in the right direction in the coming year and years ahead.

For great tattoo design ideas, check out our good friends at TattooJohnny.com

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