Lady Justice tattoo: best ideas and meaning

Lady Justice tattoo: meaning and symbolism

Lady Justice descends from the Greek Themis and the Roman Justitia, and her three attributes read separately. The scales mean weighing the evidence, the sword the power to enforce a decision, and the blindfold impartiality – justice that does not look at who is standing before it.

The blindfold is in fact a late addition that appeared in the renaissance, and it began as a jab at the courts. Today it is read the other way round, as an ideal.

Modern meaning and personal reading

Most often it is a motif for people in law – lawyers, judges, students. For them Lady Justice works like a badge of the profession.

The second reading is personal: justice a person obtained, or conversely a reminder that they did not get it. Some deliberately leave off the blindfold or tip the scales – that inverts the meaning and is a strong way to make the motif your own.

Styles and design variations

Our gallery is dominated by black and grey realism – a statue with worked drapery and shading, which wants a surface: arm, thigh, shoulder blade or forearm.

The scales alone in fine line or geometry are a much smaller version of the same meaning. Engraving style suits the classical source. Colour appears rarely, usually as a gold accent.

Our artists like to experiment, and they will build you something that still makes sense to you years from now.