SKULLS have symbolized many things, but are you even aware of what all they symbolize? There’s the obvious, of course, being death. To other cultures, it may represent something else…

On New England tombstones, engraved skulls often represented mortality (which is actually similar to representing death). These skulls are often paired with a pair of wings.

Saint Jerome kept a large skull on his writing desk. The empty eye sockets represented eternity, contrasting with his own eyes. This influenced him to contemplate more, look deeper into his writing.

We can’t discuss the symbolism of skulls without mentioning Hamlet. In Shakespeare’s famous play, Hamlet holds up the skull of an old friend, and speaks with sadness and ironic humor. In that scene, the skulls represents the impossibility of certainty, and he continues to make references throughout the play making us believe he is fascinated with the human body and how we all will decay someday, even if we are kings, or jesters. (Sorry boys and girls, never got around to reading Hamlet so that’s the best I could do! ha ha)

The Mexican holiday, The Day of the Dead, is most often represented by skeletons and skulls.

Day of the Dead sugar skull

Skulls often represent poison when placed on bottles.

In Buddhism, skulls often represented wrathful deities.

Bottom line is- skulls are a universal symbol. No matter what it’s on and what that meaning is, it is all centralized around one thing- death. It may be used in celebration or as a warning, but no matter what you slap it on, our minds will always circle around it’s origin (death!).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_(symbolism)

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