Bird of Paradise Tattoo Meaning
Freedom, beauty, the exotic, and the silhouette of flight in bloom.
The Bird of Paradise is flight blooming as a flower — the brilliant Strelitzia shaped exactly like a bird about to take wing, named for the birds of paradise, the emblem of freedom, the exotic, and beauty that is the evolved perfection of a living relationship. To carry the Bird of Paradise is to carry freedom, beauty, the exotic, and the silhouette of flight in bloom — South Africa's iconic flower of the sun and freedom, beauty that is functional perfection rather than mere display, the flower shaped like a bird taking flight.
The bird of paradise flower is the iconic bloom of South Africa: Strelitzia reginae is South Africa's most iconic flower — named for the birds of paradise of New Guinea, it evokes the exotic even in its homeland; it is the flower of freedom and of the sun. The Strelitzia, with its brilliant orange and blue blooms shaped uncannily like the head and crest of an exotic bird, is native to South Africa and is its most celebrated and recognizable flower — a national emblem, instantly evoking the warmth, color, and exotic beauty of its homeland.
It was named for the birds of paradise — the spectacularly plumed birds of New Guinea — because its vivid, crested form so resembles an exotic bird in flight, and this name carries the sense of the exotic, the far-off, the paradisical. Even in South Africa, its own home, the flower evokes the exotic and the marvelous. And it is understood as the flower of freedom and of the sun: a bloom of brilliant, sun-bright color, associated with freedom, joy, and the radiant warmth of the sun. The South African bird of paradise is thus the flower of the sun — Strelitzia reginae, the nation's iconic bloom named for the birds of paradise, the flower of freedom and the sun. Strelitzia reginae is South Africa's most iconic flower, named for the birds of paradise — the exotic flower of freedom and of the sun. The South African bird of paradise is South Africa's flower of the sun — Strelitzia reginae is South Africa's most iconic flower, named for the birds of paradise of New Guinea, evoking the exotic even in its homeland, the flower of freedom and of the sun; the Strelitzia, with its brilliant orange and blue blooms shaped uncannily like the head and crest of an exotic bird, native to South Africa and its most celebrated and recognizable flower, a national emblem instantly evoking the warmth, color, and exotic beauty of its homeland — named for the spectacularly plumed birds of paradise of New Guinea because its vivid crested form so resembles an exotic bird in flight, the name carrying the sense of the exotic, the far-off, the paradisical (even in its own home evoking the exotic and marvelous) — and understood as the flower of freedom and of the sun, a bloom of brilliant sun-bright color associated with freedom, joy, and the radiant warmth of the sun.
The bird of paradise flower (Strelitzia reginae) was named by Sir Joseph Banks in 1788 and named for Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of King George III. Its orange and blue flowers emerge from a green bract in a sequence that genuinely resembles a bird's head and crest. Its pollination mechanism is equally dramatic: when a sunbird lands on the blue petal to reach the nectar, the flower deposits pollen on the bird's feet, which the bird then carries to the next flower. The actual birds of paradise — the Paradisaeidae of New Guinea — were so extraordinarily plumed that when specimens were sent to Europe in the 16th century without legs (the skins were prepared without them), Europeans concluded the birds never landed, that they lived their entire lives in the air, eating only dew and light. This is how they got their name: birds of an aerial paradise. The name survived the anatomical correction.
Bird of Paradise across cultures
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