The family of skull rings is diverse and extensive. These ubiquitous images can convey a wide spectrum of emotions, from fear and hostility to love and friendship. For this reason, you won’t find it hard to get a ring that conveys your current feelings, mood, or worldviews altogether. Here are a few motifs and styles that you ought to consider.
Sugar Skull Rings
These vibrant and alluring rings stemmed from the tradition to celebrate the Mexican festival called The Day of the Dead. At first, the term ‘sugar skulls’ denoted candy crafted to commemorate the memory of the people who are no longer with us. These sweets were shaped as skulls and covered with colorful glaze. Today, sugar skulls include, in addition to sweets, prints, jewelry, as well as festive make-up. All of these things depict a skull artistically, using a lot of color as well as intricate floral and swirly patterns. It’s hard to deny that these skulls carry strong feminine features, and although they are not created for the fair sex specifically, they are an excellent choice for ladies.
Biker Rings
Oftentimes, when someone says ‘skull rings’, they imply specifically biker rings. Indeed, motorcyclists’ penchant for skull images is well-known far beyond the motorcycle community. There are many reasons why bikers love skulls so much, but one of them stands out the most. Apparently, skulls perform the function of an amulet designed to protect against death. That’s why motorcycle riders have skulls everywhere – on their clothes, bikes, their own skin, and that’s besides jewelry. Most of the time, biker skulls look pretty intimidating, with their mouths stretched in a terrifying grim, their eyes glowing with anger (red faceted inlays are the best to convey that), and their flesh-less faces engulfed in flames.
Punk Skull Rings
Punk-style rings are similar in appearance to their biker counterparts. The only difference is that they intentionally make an emphasis on aggressiveness. Along with hostile facial expressions, these skulls utilize a broad range of visual means to convey the idea of malice, such as chains and spikes, as well as an overall distressed appearance (cracks, tears, etc.). On top of that, many punk skulls emulate the look of punks themselves hence they ‘carry’ body piercing, tattoos, or Mohawk hairstyles.
Gothic and Goth Skull Rings
Another subculture that heavily relies on skull rings is the Goths. You shouldn’t confuse Gothic and Goths, though. The former is largely inspired by the latter but makes an accent on supernatural and sometimes even satanic imagery (hence all the inverted crosses, pentagrams, Baphomets, etc.). In Gothic, skulls are often complemented with floral, geometric, or swirly ornaments, as well as a lush gemstone or enamel inlays. Goth skull rings are more simplified and less artistic. They tend to be black and white as well as pretty massive when it comes to weight and size.
Jolly Roger Rings
Everyone is familiar with the infamous pirate flag, Jolly Roger. This image used to send shivers down the spine, and those weren’t the shivers of excitement. Pirates were brutal, cruel, and merciless. At the same time, their lifestyle is very much romanticized, and we should blame (or thank) numerous novels and movies for that. A pirate is brave, adventurous, and free-spirited… These are the traits we want to emphasize when choosing Jolly Roger jewelry.
Animal Skull Rings
Animal skulls are a nice alternative to human ones. In fact, our ancestors used the skulls and bones of actual animals to craft primitive jewelry. Just like many centuries ago, animal skulls are talismans that protect against evil and misfortune. At the same time, an animal in itself can represent traits and features you wish to apply to yourself. For example, a bull is the embodiment of health, strength, hard work, and stubbornness. A lion is a symbol of strength, courage, and generosity, while an eagle represents power, greatness, and spirituality.
Memento Mori Skull Rings
While the skull is a symbol of death, it also denotes overcoming the fear of death, as well as the transience and impermanence of life. This significance underlies memento mori jewelry, an embodiment of acceptance of the natural course of things and the eternal cycle of birth and death. Memento mori rings served as a daily reminder of the ephemerality of life. At least this function was assigned to them during the Middle Ages. Today, these rings should encourage you to rejoice every day, because we do not know if we will have another day. Often, memento mori rings bear some kind of inscription as a form of motivation or commemoration.
Engagement Skull Rings
You thought that skulls can’t represent the most beautiful feeling in the world, that’s love? Think again! In fact, they stand for such things as constancy and inviolability. At the end, when the flesh decays, the only thing left of us is our skull and bones. Skull wedding rings are very popular in the biker community, although they occurred at the same time as memento mori rings. They say that Martin Luthor’s wedding ring featured a skull. Be that as it may, if you are not afraid of bold and original decisions when it comes to wedding fashion, a skull ring can be an ideal solution.
