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Snake Tattoos: From Biblical “Sin” to Queer Liberation - Queer Tattoo Meanings & Symbolism

  • Writer: Memphis Mori
    Memphis Mori
  • Sep 2, 2025
  • 4 min read

For centuries, the snake has been one of the most loaded symbols in Western culture. In the Bible, the serpent whispered temptation into Eve’s ear, marking it forever as a sign of danger, sin, and corruption. When the church wanted to warn against women’s sexuality or queer desire, the snake was their favorite shorthand.

But tattoo history tells another story. Instead of a symbol of shame, snakes on skin became a way for queers and femmes to reclaim desire, power, and liberation.









Genesis 3

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?" The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The Snake in the Bible: Sin and Temptation

In Christian theology, the snake is practically the original villain. Eve’s fateful bite into the apple, prompted by the serpent, set up millennia of associations between snakes, women, and sexual corruption. A snake on the body marked you as deviant, dangerous, or at least someone who wasn’t playing by society’s rules.

This baggage carried over into the early tattoo scene. A serpent tattoo wasn’t just decoration — it carried a whisper of taboo.


The Real “Sin”: Curiosity and Rebellion

What’s often overlooked is that the story of Adam and Eve is not just about eating fruit. It’s about blind faith and punishing the first woman for daring to want knowledge.

Eve didn’t murder, steal, or betray anyone — she simply questioned authority and sought more information. Her curiosity was framed as sin, and the consequence was eternal suffering for all women.

This framing is deeply political: it demonizes women’s desire for autonomy, knowledge, and rebellion against power. The serpent, then, isn’t just temptation — it’s the symbol of refusing to obey without question.

The story of Adam and Eve isn’t solely about disobedience—it’s about punishing the first woman for asking questions and seeking knowledge. Eve didn’t steal, murder, or betray; she simply pursued understanding. That thumbing at authority led to eternal suffering for all women, strengthening the narrative that female curiosity is dangerous.


This framing is deeply political: curiosity becomes sin, punishment becomes the norm. The church used the snake to reinforce this — a symbol meant to deter rebellion, not celebrate it.


Erotic Symbolism in Queer Tattoos: Snakes and Roses 🌹

Here’s where it gets juicy. By the 19th and early 20th centuries, snakes started showing up in erotic art and tattoo flash with a whole new coded meaning.

  • The snake often stood in for the penis — a flexible, sinuous, unmistakably phallic figure.

  • The rose? Not just romance. In erotic symbolism, roses often represented the anus — yes, literally “the butthole.”

Put the two together — a snake curling into or around a rose — and suddenly a tattoo wasn’t just a design, it was a sexual code. These motifs circulated in tattoo flash and erotic illustration, giving people a way to ink queer desire onto their skin without saying a word.


Queer Subversion: Desire, Not Shame

While the church painted snakes as sinful, queer communities flipped the meaning. A serpent tattoo could signal:

  • Desire instead of shame.

  • Pleasure instead of punishment.

  • Power instead of weakness.

For femmes, snakes could reclaim the “dangerous woman” trope as something seductive and self-owned. For queer men, snake-and-rose combinations carried an under-the-skin message about sexuality in a time when it wasn’t safe to say it out loud.


From Survival to Liberation

By the late 20th century, snakes had become a fully queer-coded tattoo. They weren’t just symbols of survival — they were badges of liberation. A snake inked across a forearm or coiled around a rose could be read as a proud, unapologetic embrace of queer eroticism.

Today, snake tattoos still carry their biblical baggage, but they’ve also become a powerful emblem of reclaiming that narrative. For queers and femmes, the serpent isn’t a sign of the fall — it’s a symbol of rising up.


Please note: I am NOT implying that all snake and rose tattoos have homosexual meanings - I am pointing out that some people have used tattoos and roses to convey homo-erotic ideas.


Sources & Further Reading


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