Weapon Symbols

45 symbols to explore

Meaning & historical context

Browse weapon symbols

45 symbols.

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Triple-lion-head mace (šita ur-sag eš) of Ningirsu — Documented Sumerian Motif, Lagash II preview
Object£0.99

Triple-lion-head mace (šita ur-sag eš) of Ningirsu — Documented Sumerian Motif, Lagash II

Lagash II votive mace-head with three lion heads in high relief, inscribed by Gudea as šita ur-sag eš for Ningirsu.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityFaithProtectionHistorically supported
Sword and Veil preview
Eastern Star Symbols£0.99

Sword and Veil

The sword and veil associated with Adah, the blue point of the Order of the Eastern Star, teaching duty, fidelity, and moral courage.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialFaithProtectionHumilityHistorically supported
Crescent and Scimitar preview
Shrine Symbols£0.99

Crescent and Scimitar

The crescent and scimitar at the centre of the historic Shrine emblem, developed for an American Masonic-affiliated fraternity in the 1870s.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityCompassionHistorically supported
General Service ‘Rising Sun’ Badge — Australian Commonwealth Military Forces, 1902–1918 preview
Service Badge£0.99

General Service ‘Rising Sun’ Badge — Australian Commonwealth Military Forces, 1902–1918

Australia’s 1902 General Service Badge arranged a crown and trophy of arms above an “AUSTRALIA” scroll; it later became popularly known as the Rising Sun.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityHistorically supported
Royal Artillery Gun Badge — British Army, 18th–Early 20th Century preview
Branch Device£0.99

Royal Artillery Gun Badge — British Army, 18th–Early 20th Century

A muzzle-loading field gun forms the centre of this documented Royal Artillery cap badge, accompanied in the complete insignia by a crown and motto scrolls.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityHistorically supported
Flaming Grenade Badge — French Infantry and Gendarmerie Traditions, 19th Century preview
Branch Device£0.99

Flaming Grenade Badge — French Infantry and Gendarmerie Traditions, 19th Century

A stylised grenade with rising flames identified particular French arms and services, but its flame count and accompanying devices depended on regulation and context.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityHistorically supported
Witham Crescent Sword Maker's Mark preview
Makers Marks£0.99

Witham Crescent Sword Maker's Mark

Crescent mark on a medieval sword from the River Witham, possibly a maker’s mark.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityHistorically supported
Crossed Sabres Cavalry Insignia — United States Army, 1851–1918 preview
Branch Device£0.99

Crossed Sabres Cavalry Insignia — United States Army, 1851–1918

Two curved sabres crossed in saltire identified United States cavalry, with period examples varying in crossing point, orientation, finish and unit numbers.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityHistorically supported
Crossed Rifles Infantry Insignia — United States Army, 1875–1918 preview
Branch Device£0.99

Crossed Rifles Infantry Insignia — United States Army, 1875–1918

Crossed shoulder arms became the U.S. Army infantry branch insignia in 1875, but the weapon model and accompanying numbers changed before later standardisation.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityHistorically supported
Passau Running Wolf Blade Mark preview
Makers Marks£0.99

Passau Running Wolf Blade Mark

Running Wolf blade mark associated with the swordsmiths of Passau.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityHistorically supported
Mill-Rind Swordsmith Mark preview
Makers Marks£0.99

Mill-Rind Swordsmith Mark

Unidentified armourer’s mill-rind blade mark on a fifteenth-century sword.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityHistorically supported
Crossed Cannon Branch Device — French Artillery, 19th Century preview
Branch Device£0.99

Crossed Cannon Branch Device — French Artillery, 19th Century

Two cannon barrels crossed in saltire formed a French artillery branch attribute, often combined with a flaming grenade or other pattern-specific details.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityHistorically supported
Crossed Cannon Artillery Insignia — United States Army, 1830s–1918 preview
Branch Device£0.99

Crossed Cannon Artillery Insignia — United States Army, 1830s–1918

Crossed gun tubes identified United States Army artillery from 1834, with regimental numbers, embroidery, metal finish and later specialist additions varying by pattern.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityHistorically supported
Serrated Saw of Utu/Shamash — Documented Akkadian Motif, Akkadian–Old Babylonian preview
Archaeological Motifs£0.99

Serrated Saw of Utu/Shamash — Documented Akkadian Motif, Akkadian–Old Babylonian

Akkadian–Old Babylonian serrated blade held by Utu/Shamash as a sun-god attribute, not a free badge and not a carpenter’s tool.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialFaithIdentityHistorically supported
Spiderweb Knife Mark preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Spiderweb Knife Mark

A web slows, catches and accumulates; a knife cuts a direct path. Bringing them together creates a modern flash image of entanglement and resistance, where resilience can mean enduring what holds you or finding the edge needed to break through it.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialResilienceBalanceIdentityHistorically supported
Storm Knife Emblem preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Storm Knife Emblem

The storm supplies movement, uncertainty and forces beyond control; the knife adds a fixed edge and direction. Together they form a modern maritime-flash emblem for holding balance when conditions turn hostile and continuing through turbulence rather than waiting for calm.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialBalanceStrengthResilienceHistorically supported
Banner Blade preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Banner Blade

Tattoo banners historically gave names, mottos and dedications a place inside the image. Left deliberately blank beside a blade, this modern version becomes an open emblem of resolve: the words, person or principle worth standing behind are yours to supply.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialStrengthIdentityResilienceHistorically supported
Blood Drop Knife preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Blood Drop Knife

The knife supplies danger and resolve; the suspended drop makes consequence visible. This contemporary flash emblem can speak to sacrifice, mortality, vitality or surviving hardship without turning blood imagery into a fixed statement about violence or personal history.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathStrengthResilienceHistorically supported
Broken Heart Blade preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Broken Heart Blade

Pierced hearts already carried love and pain together in historic sailor and military flash. Breaking the heart makes the fracture explicit, turning this modern variation into an emblem for attachment that has been damaged but remains important enough to remember.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialFaithLoveResilienceHistorically supported
Chain-Wrapped Blade preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Chain-Wrapped Blade

A blade is made to move; a chain exists to hold. Wrapping one around the other creates deliberate tension, turning this modern flash composition into an image of restraint, endurance and strength that remains present even when freedom of movement is limited.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialResilienceStrengthProtectionHistorically supported
Crossed Daggers Sign preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Crossed Daggers Sign

Two daggers meeting at the centre turn a familiar flash weapon into a sign of tension and equilibrium. This modern arrangement can suggest guarded boundaries, mutual strength or the moment when opposing forces are held in deliberate balance.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialProtectionStrengthBalanceHistorically supported
Crown Dagger Mark preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Crown Dagger Mark

A crown raises the question of who holds authority; a dagger asks what that authority costs or protects. Their modern combination turns familiar heraldic and flash imagery into a compact emblem of identity, ambition and strength held under pressure.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialStrengthIdentityResilienceHistorically supported
Devil Tail Knife preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Devil Tail Knife

Give a traditional flash knife a devil's tail and the weapon suddenly gains personality: dangerous, mischievous and deliberately provocative. This modern design plays with temptation and defiance without turning devil imagery into a statement about the wearer's religion or morality.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialIdentityStrengthTransformationHistorically supported
Flame Tip Knife preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Flame Tip Knife

A blade already carries direction and danger; adding flame makes it feel active, unstable and impossible to ignore. This contemporary flash design uses that heat to explore force, transformation and the possibility of renewal after destruction.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialTransformationStrengthRenewalHistorically supported
Heart and Blade preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Heart and Blade

Hearts and blades share a long history in sailor and military flash, where names and mottos often made the image personal. Without that inscription, this modern pairing leaves room for love, hurt, memory and the resolve to carry all three.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialFaithLoveMemoryHistorically supported
Lucky Seven Dagger preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Lucky Seven Dagger

Seven brings the language of luck and games of chance; the dagger adds risk and resolve. Their combination is modern rather than inherited sailor code, making this flash emblem a reminder that fortune is uncertain and courage still matters when the outcome cannot be controlled.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialLuckHopeResilienceHistorically supported
Mourning Blade preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Mourning Blade

A blade can mark danger or survival; placed in a memorial context, its hard edge becomes a way to give grief visible form. Mourning Blade is a modern emblem for memory carried forward, honouring what has been lost without pretending mourning follows one symbolic rule.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialMemoryDeathFaithHistorically supported
Shields Mark preview
Nautical & Maritime£0.99

Shields Mark

A shield turns defence into something visible: a surface that can stand between danger and the vulnerable while also carrying identity, allegiance, courage, and resolve.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialGuidanceProtectionStrengthHistorically supported
Mjolnir preview
Norse & Rune-Inspired£0.99

Mjolnir

Thor's hammer is both a mythic weapon and an archaeologically attested Viking-age pendant form, making Mjölnir one of the clearest Norse symbols of strength, protection, blessing, and religious identity.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialStrengthProtectionFaithHistorically supported
Serpent Dagger Crest preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Serpent Dagger Crest

Snake and dagger imagery appears directly in American wartime flash, but its meaning was never limited to one rule. Here the serpent's living curve against the rigid blade suggests danger negotiated through adaptability, awareness and change.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialRenewalTransformationWisdomHistorically supported
Swallow Knife Mark preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Swallow Knife Mark

The swallow carries strong associations with sailors, journeys and return, while the knife belongs to the wider language of wartime flash. Combined here, they create a modern emblem for finding a way home through danger and uncertainty.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialGuidanceHopeLoveHistorically supported
Sacred Heart Dagger preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Sacred Heart Dagger

The Sacred Heart carries centuries of Christian devotion centred on divine love and suffering; the dagger belongs to a later flash vocabulary. Their modern combination makes devotion feel costly and physical: love held through pain rather than protected from it.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialFaithLoveResilienceHistorically supported
Rose Banner Blade preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Rose Banner Blade

Rose, blade and banner are all familiar parts of classic tattoo flash, but the words placed between them made each piece personal. This modern composition keeps that openness, pairing beauty with hardship and leaving space for the name, memory or promise that gives the emblem its real weight.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialFaithLoveMemoryHistorically supported
Panther Blade Emblem preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Panther Blade Emblem

The crawling or striking panther became an icon of mid-century American old-school tattooing. Paired here with a blade, its physical force becomes an emblem of fierce protection, courage and the refusal to retreat when threatened.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialProtectionStrengthResilienceHistorically supported
Eagle Dagger Device preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Eagle Dagger Device

Eagles and weapons appear together across surviving American military flash, where bold imagery could express service, patriotism or personal identity. This modern device keeps the pairing but broadens its reading toward vigilance, strength and determined self-possession.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialStrengthIdentityGuidanceHistorically supported
Death Moth Dagger preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Death Moth Dagger

The death's-head hawkmoth carries a real skull-like marking that has inspired ominous stories for generations. Paired with a dagger in this modern flash design, it becomes a memento mori image where mortality is not the end of the story but the pressure that makes change, memory and resilience matter.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialDeathMemoryTransformationHistorically supported
Anchor Dagger Crest preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Anchor Dagger Crest

The anchor holds while the dagger cuts forward. Both belong to the historic vocabulary of sailor and military tattooing, but their pairing here is modern: an emblem of steadiness under pressure, hope through danger and the determination to find a way back.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialHopeProtectionGuidanceHistorically supported
Rose Through Dagger preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Rose Through Dagger

A rose pierced by a dagger sets tenderness against danger in one of tattooing's most enduring visual contrasts. This modern flash composition can speak to love carried through pain, memory that survives loss, or beauty defended by strength.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialFaithLoveBalanceHistorically supported
Hercules Club Pendant preview
Occult & Esoteric£0.99

Hercules Club Pendant

A fourth-century Romano-British gold club pendant that invokes Hercules through his defining weapon, while leaving its wearer’s intended benefit uncertain.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialStrengthProtectionHistorically supported
Winged Thunderbolt Pendant preview
Occult & Esoteric£0.99

Winged Thunderbolt Pendant

A Roman gold pendant combining a winged thunderbolt with suspended Medusa masks, catalogued as probably amuletic but without a recorded personal purpose.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialProtectionStrengthHistorically supported
Winged Blade Device preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Winged Blade Device

Wings pull upward while the blade drives along a fixed line. Bringing them together creates a modern flash emblem of movement with purpose: freedom that still has direction, and hope strengthened by the resolve to keep going.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialGuidanceStrengthHopeHistorically supported
Tiger Knife Crest preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Tiger Knife Crest

The tiger brings explosive animal force; the knife gives that force a deliberate edge. This contemporary American-flash crest reads as courage held ready, combining ferocity with control while avoiding claims borrowed from the distinct tiger traditions of Asian tattoo cultures.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialStrengthIdentityProtectionHistorically supported
Thorn Tip Dagger preview
Flash Classics£0.99

Thorn Tip Dagger

Thorns protect by making approach costly; a dagger does the same through an unmistakable edge. Combined in this modern flash design, they turn defence into the central idea: boundaries shaped not by isolation, but by experience and the determination to protect what matters.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialProtectionResilienceStrengthHistorically supported
Cross of Saint James preview
Heraldry & Emblems£0.99

Cross of Saint James

The sword-shaped Cross of Saint James is the distinctive emblem of the medieval Order of Santiago, linking Christian devotion with the military and institutional history surrounding Saint James.

3 variants9 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialFaithIdentityStrengthHistorically supported
Axe-Shaped Amulet — Medieval Rus’ and Baltic-Slavic Contact Zones preview
Amulets And Talisman£0.99

Axe-Shaped Amulet — Medieval Rus’ and Baltic-Slavic Contact Zones

A miniature axe pendant distributed across 11th–12th-century Rus’, Baltic and Central European contact networks.

3 variants12 filesPDFPNGSVG
CommercialOriginal Meaning UnknownHistorically supported

About weapon symbols

Weapon symbols and their researched historical, cultural, and practical relationships.

Sanctum Hex Journal

Read beyond the catalogue.

Editorial research connected to weapon and its historical settings.

Curated sets

Collections with related symbols.

Collection overlap is shown against the symbols on this meaning page.

25 matching symbols

Traditional Nautical Tattoo Collection

Traditional Nautical Tattoo gathers 25 symbols shaped around traditional flash language, protection motifs, bold line symbolism, and heirloom Americana composition, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.

7 matching symbols

Historically Documented Military Symbols and Insignia (c. 1700–1918)

A curated collection of diverse military rank, branch, and unit insignia reflecting authentic forms used worldwide across the 18th to early 20th centuries.

3 matching symbols

Premodern European Merchants' and Makers' Marks

A curated collection showcasing authentic merchant and maker marks from premodern Europe, reflecting historical identities and trade authentication across regions and crafts.

2 matching symbols

Emblems and Symbols of Secret Societies and Initiatory Orders

A diverse selection of historically documented emblems and insignia used by secret societies, initiatory orders, and fraternal organisations worldwide.

2 matching symbols

Greek & Roman Protective Signs, c. 600 BCE-400 CE

Greek Roman Protective Signs C 600 Bce 400 Ce gathers 25 symbols shaped around 25 distinct protective and apotropaic forms tied to named Greek, Hellenistic, Roman Republican, Roman Imperial, or Late Roman objects and contexts from c. 600 BCE to 400 CE, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.

2 matching symbols

Sumerian and Early Akkadian Motifs of Southern Mesopotamia

A curated set of 25 historically documented visual motifs from Sumerian and early Akkadian southern Mesopotamian art, spanning c. 3500–1800 BCE. Includes iconic emblems like celestial stars, divine hybrids, foundation pegs, and royal standards drawn from seals, sculptures, and temple artifacts.

1 matching symbol

Medieval Pilgrim Protective Symbols (1100-1600) Collection

Medieval Pilgrim Protective Symbols (1100-1600) gathers 25 symbols shaped around pilgrim badges, journey signs, devotional monograms, protective emblems, shrine souvenirs, manuscript motifs, and symbols of faith, endurance, healing, identity, and safe return, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.

1 matching symbol

Nautical & Maritime Symbols Collection

Nautical & Maritime Symbols gathers 25 symbols shaped around ropework, anchors, beacons, ships, swallows, hearts, stars, and the symbolic shorthand of maritime life, with each mark chosen for clarity, historical resonance, and a strong editorial silhouette.

1 matching symbol

Norse Symbols & Runes

A researched set spanning early Germanic Elder Futhark runes, Viking-age Norse motifs, medieval mythology, and later Icelandic magical staves. Each symbol distinguishes documented historical evidence from modern meanings such as guidance, protection, strength, memory, resilience, and renewal.