Tlaloc Tattoo Meaning

Rain, life and flood, the storm, and water that both gives and takes.

Tlaloc is the great rain-god of the Aztecs and of Mesoamerica — the goggle-eyed deity of water, rain, and fertility whose gift makes life possible and whose floods, lightning, and storms can destroy, the giver and taker of life whose paradise awaits those his waters claim. To carry Tlaloc is to carry rain, life and flood, and the storm — the rain-god whose water both gives and takes, who brings the rain that feeds the crops and the flood that drowns, the dual deity of the water that nourishes and destroys.

Tlaloc was one of the two principal deities of the Aztec Templo Mayor, the great pyramid-temple at the heart of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan — his shrine stood at the top of the great pyramid side by side with the shrine of Huitzilopochtli, the sun and war god. That Tlaloc shared the summit of the most sacred structure in the Aztec world with Huitzilopochtli shows his supreme importance: the god of rain and water was as vital to the Aztecs as the god of sun and war, for the rains that Tlaloc controlled were essential to the agriculture and survival of the people.

Tlaloc governed the rain, the waters, and fertility — the life-giving rains that watered the maize and made the crops grow. But he also presided over the deaths associated with water: those who died by drowning, by being struck by lightning, or from water-borne diseases were claimed by Tlaloc, taken to his realm. As the controller of the rains on which all life depended, and of the deadly powers of water, Tlaloc was a deity of immense importance and power, honored at the very summit of the Aztec sacred world. The Aztec Tlaloc is the supreme rain-god whose shrine crowned the Templo Mayor beside Huitzilopochtli's. The Aztec Tlaloc is the rain-god of the Templo Mayor — one of the two principal deities whose shrine stood atop the great pyramid beside Huitzilopochtli's (sun and war god), marking his supreme importance: the god of rain/water as vital as the god of sun/war, for the rains he controlled were essential to agriculture and survival. He governed rain, water, and fertility (the life-giving rains that grew the maize) and the deaths by water — those who died by drowning, lightning, or water-borne disease were claimed by him.

Tlaloc's iconography is immediately recognizable: large circular eyes (often interpreted as goggle-shaped), fanged serpent mouth, a distinctive headdress. He appears in over 2,000 years of Mesoamerican art — at Teotihuacan's murals, at Olmec sites, throughout Aztec religious art. The Aztec ritual associated with Tlaloc was the most morally confronting in the entire Aztec religious calendar: during the month of Atlcahualo, children were sacrificed to Tlaloc specifically because their tears were believed to make rain fall. Children who wept more were considered more auspicious offerings. The children went to Tlalocan — the paradise of Tlaloc, a garden of abundance — which was considered the most pleasant of the afterlife destinations. The god who required the tears of children was also the god whose domain was paradise.

Tlaloc across cultures

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