In short: peace and hope first, then faith, love and remembrance. That's what a dove tattoo means to most people who wear one. Most of it goes back to the Bible, Greek myth and the bird's own habits. What you draw with the dove (a branch, a cross, a second bird) decides which one yours says.
Look at the beak first. On the classic peace dove, it holds a sprig: a thin stem and a few leaves, five or six strokes in all. Cover the sprig with your thumb and you still have a nice bird. Take your thumb away and you have a message people have been reading since the Book of Genesis. Small sprig, big job.
What a dove tattoo means
Four readings come up again and again. Each one has its own story, and its own sign.
Peace, and a leaf after the flood
This one starts in Genesis. After the flood, Noah sends out a raven, then a dove. The first time, the dove finds nowhere to land and comes back. The second time, it returns at evening with something in its beak:
“And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.” (Genesis 8:11, King James Version)
Notice the detail: one leaf, not a branch. It meant the water was going down, so the dove says hope as much as peace. The worst is over, and there's dry land somewhere. People often choose it after a long, hard stretch.
Seven days later, Noah sends it out once more. This time it doesn't come back. It doesn't need to.
Faith, and a dove coming down
In Christian tradition, the dove stands for the Holy Spirit. The image comes from the baptism of Jesus: in the Gospel of Matthew, the Spirit of God comes down “like a dove.” Luke goes further: “in a bodily shape like a dove.”
Set against a cross, the dove reads as faith in its plainest form. People who wear it often keep it small and private: a wrist, an ankle, the inside of an arm. The tattoo says what you believe. It doesn't do the believing for you.
Love, and two beaks that touch
Two doves facing each other read as love, and that reading goes back a long way. The Song of Songs praises the beloved's “doves' eyes.” In Greek myth, the dove was one of Aphrodite's sacred birds, and doves were said to pull her chariot. Love got there early.
The birds earned some of it. During courtship, a pigeon pair touches beaks, and one often slides its bill inside the other's. English has a phrase for it: billing and cooing. Do they mate for life? Depends on the dove. Rock pigeons tend to keep the same partner year after year. Mourning doves are only seasonally monogamous. Loyal for a season still counts.
Remembrance, and a dove that flies off
This is the gentlest reading, and the one people take most to heart. A single dove in flight, heading up and away, often stands for someone who's gone, though it's not the only bird people wear in memory. Early Christians already put doves with olive branches on their tombs, as a sign of peace. The habit is old.
North America even has a mourning dove. It's named for its call, a low coo that sounds sad, not for any grief of its own. If your dove is for someone you've lost, a name or a date beside it makes it theirs. Take your time with that one.
Dove tattoo ideas: a branch, a cross or two birds
A dove on its own can say any of the four. So what a dove tattoo means on you comes down to what you put with it. The style matters less than you'd think: a few clean lines carry a dove better than a pile of feathers. Fewer lines, clearer bird.
The two doves, 1.8 in (4.5 cm)
The dove with an olive branch, 1.8 in (4.5 cm)
The dove and cross, 1.9 in (4.9 cm)
With an olive branch: “It's over”
This is the dove for peace, and for the end of a rough patch. The branch was a sign of peace before the dove ever carried it. Roman envoys held one out, and Roman coins showed Eirene, the Greek goddess of peace, holding one. The dove simply picked it up.
With a cross: “I believe”
This is the dove for faith. Fine line suits it, because the cross needs straight, even strokes and the dove needs light ones. More of the same theme sits among our cross tattoos and religious tattoos.
Two doves: “Us”
This is the dove for love, and it takes two. Beak to beak, the pair reads as a couple, and the gap between the beaks is where the meaning sits. We'd keep that gap tiny. Any wider and the birds look like they've had a fight.
With a name, a date or a rose
This is the dove for remembrance, or for one particular love. None of our designs carries a name, and that's on purpose: it has to be yours. A custom jagua tattoo can add a name, a date or a rose around the bird.
Every dove we make is in our dove tattoo collection.
Where a dove sits best on you
Our doves are all under 2 inches (5 cm), so they fit almost anywhere. Our favorite spot is between the shoulder blades. The two beaks meet right over the spine, so the pair sits dead center.
| Design | Size | Where to put it |
|---|---|---|
| Two doves | 1.8 in (4.5 cm) wide | upper back, back of the upper arm, shoulder |
| Dove with an olive branch | 1.8 in (4.5 cm) wide | inner wrist, below the collarbone |
| Dove and cross | 1.9 in (4.9 cm) tall | ankle, inner forearm, back of the hand |
One thing to know: the shoulder, forearm and upper back are among the spots where a tattoo holds up best. Hands and feet get washed and rubbed more, so they lose the design faster.
Dove or pigeon, and two other mix-ups
A dove is a pigeon
Biologists don't split them. Both names cover the 300-plus species of the pigeon family, and the bird on your city's sidewalk is also called the rock dove. On skin, the drawing makes the difference. A slim body, raised wings and a small head say dove. Draw it plump and strutting, and nobody reads peace.
The white dove isn't white here
Our ink turns blue-black, so a dove is drawn as an outline. The white of the bird is your own skin. That's why the outline does all the talking.
Too many feathers, too small
A fully feathered dove needs room. At under 2 inches (5 cm), feathers drawn too close run together into one shape. Keep the detail for a large piece, or keep the lines few.
Try one before you commit
The simplest way to find out if a dove suits you is to wear one. A jagua temporary tattoo goes on in 2 minutes and looks pale at first, then turns blue-black over 24 to 36 hours. It stays on for 1 to 2 weeks, depending on the spot and your skin (here's how long temporary tattoos last, and why).
If the dove you have in mind isn't one of ours, a custom jagua tattoo is made in 3 to 4 weeks, with a minimum of 3 pieces. It's also a gentle way to try a memorial design, with a name, before anything permanent.
Noah got his answer from one leaf. Yours can be that small.
A few clean lines, minus the needle.
Jagua ink that turns blue-black in 24 to 36 hours. On in 2 minutes, on your skin for 1 to 2 weeks: long enough to pick the sign that's yours.
Waterproof · No needles · PPD-free · Vegan
What people ask before getting a dove
What does a dove with an olive branch mean?
Peace, and the hope that a hard time is ending. It joins two old signs. One is the dove that came back to Noah. The other is the olive branch, linked to peace since the Greeks and Romans.
What is the symbolism of two doves?
Love and loyalty between two people, whoever they are. A couple, most often, but also a parent and a child, two siblings or two best friends. Flying the same way, side by side, they tend to read as two people heading somewhere together.
What does a three dove tattoo mean?
There's no fixed reading. Many people make it one dove per person: a family of three, three siblings, three friends. Some Christian wearers read three doves as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The person wearing it decides which.
Is a dove a good tattoo choice?
Yes, by most readings. Few symbols are read so kindly in so many places, and a dove stays recognizable even when it's small. Just pick the sign you add to it with care, since a cross or a date changes what it says.
What is the spiritual meaning of a dove?
In Christianity, the dove stands for the Holy Spirit. In the story of Noah, shared by Jews and Christians, it's the bird that brought back hope. These are beliefs people hold about the bird, not powers it has.
