Skull Rings: Do We Love Or Hate Them?

Posted by: KHTS Articles in News Articles September 28, 2020 - 1:25 pm 0 1,041 Views

Let’s be honest – the majority of us associate skulls with something negative. If we see a skull on a bottle of an unknown substance, we immediately understand that it is poisonous. If a skull sign is plastered on a piece of equipment, we understand that we must keep away from it. Let’s travel a few centuries back in time… if you spotted a black flag with a death’s head (skull and crossbones aka Jolly Roger) you would expect nothing but troubles. So, the common belief is that skulls are responsible for the death, danger, chaos, wreak havoc, and things like that. But if skulls are so bad, why do so many people want to have skull jewelry so bad? The answer is simple: skulls are more than what you think they are. In fact, they represent the widest spectrum of ideas and emotions, from death to life.

What Did Ancient People Think About Skulls?

Our ancestors weren’t scared of skulls. Vice versa, they sought strength and protection in them. They took skulls of birds and small animals and crafted amulets to enlist protection against evil spirits and bring good luck. Human skulls came in handy, as well. Revered members of a tribe after their death ‘contributed’ their skulls for makeshift altars, and it was a great honor to become a keeper of those craniums.

Not only totems and amulets, but skulls also became a means to emphasize the power and importance of tribesmen. Only the bravest warriors, shamans, and tribe leadership could wear multiple skulls as decorations. It was believed that the more skulls a person carried, the more power, bravery, and valor he possessed. Also, to make themselves seem even more fearless and courageous, tribe warriors decapitated opponents and strung their heads on stakes. Enemy squads, seeing a fence of skulls of defeated enemies, were supposed to retreat in fear.

While warriors used skulls as a tool of intimidation, shamans and healers deemed them as a way to improve health, promote longevity, and even ensure immortality. As indispensable attributes of healing rituals, skulls are used to this day in many tribes sticking to primitive ways of life. The reason why craniums are believed to possess magical healing properties is their indestructibility. Flesh putrefies but skulls and bones don’t. Therefore, they stay in this world forever, and if you treat them right, they might share their immortality with you – this was the logic.

In the middle ages, during the heyday of the alchemical sciences, skulls were associated with knowledge and wisdom. At this time, people became actively interested in the structure of the human body and they discovered that the skull is a storehouse for the brain, and the brain, in turn, is a vessel for the knowledge that a person accumulates throughout life. As a result, craniums were deemed as receptacles of knowledge, and their images can be seen in many alchemy books.

So What Do Skulls Symbolize?

Let’s summarize meanings attributed to skulls by ancient people:

protection against adversity;
good luck talisman;
a sign of power, masculinity, and bravery;
symbol of life and immortality;
representation of intelligence and wisdom.

As you can see, skulls used to be less intimidating than they are now. Luckily, these meanings are not lost. They blended with morbid significance to create something unique and, I dare to say, compelling. A person wearing 925 silver skull rings can say so much about their attitude and personality without saying a word. The mystery behind a skull is probably the reason we are drawn to them.

Skull Rings in Modern Culture

Skull jewelry has been a staple throughout the ages, not just in the ancient world. For example, memento mori skull rings were widespread among the nobility and even queens did not disdain to wear them. Anyways, let’s get back to more or less modern history to see why skulls are still popular today.

After a short period of oblivion at the beginning of the 20th century, the skulls reappeared in full glory in the 1950s when the biker movement took the stage. At first, bikers did not wear jewelry but, instead, they adorned their clothes and motorcycles with skulls and other awesome symbols. However, soon they discovered Mexican rings, which blended perfectly with biker appearance and philosophy. One of the most popular symbols of these rings was the skull (after all, death is the central theme in Mexican culture). So, bikers borrowed the design of the Mexican rings, elaborated on their meaning (for bikers, a skull is a representation of equality and protection against death), and breathed new life into a symbol with a long history.

After the love for skull rings was revived, fashion designers took it even further and turned it into an integral attribute of any audacious fashionista. This is how skulls enter our lives and are not going to leave any time soon.