What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about biker jewelry? A skull, right? Have you ever wondered why that is the case? Why are skulls so predominant in the biker world and why do we keep seeing the same symbols over and over again, whether we’re talking about their MC emblems, rings, or pendants.
Well, symbolism is rooted in the biker culture, which is something we’ll talk about today. Many falsely believe that bikers simply adore and glorify death and violence, which is why they’re often seen rocking skull on their fingers and around their necks, but, as you’ll learn in just a few minutes, that’s not the case. Spoiler alert – it’s quite the opposite.
So, if you’re curious to learn a thing or two about biker symbols, their rings, and pendants they wear around their necks – stick around, we have a few things we want to share with you.
1. They’re (Almost) Always Made Out Of Silver
While many people don’t mind wearing gold, or any other kind of jewelry for that matter, bikers seem to only stick to silver. Why is that? Well, it’s not just silver – it’s other metals and alloys that look like it, so even white gold is an option. Now, the reason behind it is rather simple. Gold is very expensive. Biker rings and pendants are massive. And as we know, they like to wear a lot of them, which means, that if they wanted to wear gold jewelry, there wouldn’t be any money left for their bikes. Also, gold screams luxury and extravaganza and that’s the complete opposite of what a true biker stands for.
Silver, on the other hand, looks rugged, durable, powerful – all of the things bikers love and live by. It’s the perfect metal to bring the symbolism to life. Also, it’s a noble metal and we know that these cats like to think of themselves as modern-day knights, but instead of horses, they ride loud, badass choppers. Now, silver isn’t that cheap, also, so when they’re in need of something even more affordable, stainless steel does the trick.
2. They’re Massive For A Reason
Whether you’re looking at the pendants, bracelets, or rings, they all have one thing in common – they’re big. While many believe that the in-your-face, over-the-top size of the pendants and rings has a lot to do with looking big, burly, tough, and masculine – that’s not entirely true. To some extent it is, don’t get us wrong, but there’s more to it than it meets the eye. First of all, symbols are very important for bikers and what’s the point of wearing a symbol on your chest if you can’t show it off? Whether they’re wearing an MC emblem, a skull, or an eagle – that means something to them. These symbols are signs of respect, dedication, and community and the bigger they are – the stronger their message is conveyed. On the other hand, if we add rings to the mix, the bigger they are – the more they hurt. Having a massive, silver ring on your hand can come really handy in some situations.
Now, let’s focus on what do these symbols mean. We’ve consulted with awesomejelly.com on this because we wanted to make sure we knew what we’re talking about. After all, we wouldn’t want to be the ones making assumptions about the symbolism in biker culture when it’s obvious how big of a deal it is – we wanted to get it right. So, here’s what we’ve found out.
3. Skulls – Not Glorifying Death
Contrary to popular belief, bikers don’t wear skulls just because they admire, glorify or bring death. No, it’s quite the opposite, in fact. They wear skulls to represent their bravery, courage, and fearlessness in the face of danger or death, but more importantly, they wear this symbol to scare away death. Now, we wouldn’t call them superficial, by any chance, but in biker culture, wearing a skull as a pendant means that you’re wearing a death mark. So, when the death comes creeping, wanting to leave a death-mark and take you away – it moves on since you’re already carrying one. So, a skull basically scares away death and glorifies life – not the other way around.
4. Vikings – The Bikers Of Old
As you might know, Viking motifs are quite common in biker culture – especially when it comes to pendants. More often than not, if you’re looking at a biker pendant and it’s not a skull – it’s some kind of a Viking symbol. Vikings are known to be great warriors. They were strong, brave, masculine and they were fearless in the face of danger. Bikers have a lot in common with them and for that reason – they wear Viking symbols around their necks. In general, the symbols that are most often found in biker pendants, which are of Viking descent, are Thor’s hammer, wolves, helmets, axes, shields, horns and so on.
5. The Ace Of Spades – The Symbol Of Death
We all know that the ace of spades is the highest-ranking card in a deck, but what most of us don’t know is that it is also a Motörhead song. We’re joking, you obviously know of that song, but what you actually might not know is that the ace of spades is also a symbol of death. Once again, it’s not about glorifying death – it’s about scaring it away. The ace of spades also stands for fearlessness and courage and acts as a death mark, once again, confusing the grim reaper and making him not mark you.
6. Guardian Bell – The Symbol Of Unity
There’s an old story of a biker who was attacked by the gremlins during the night and all that was left of his belongings was this small bell he started ringing in hopes of someone coming to his rescue. Fellow bikers not far down the road heard the bell and came and helped the wounded warrior by scaring away the nasty gremlins.
Now, that story is nothing but a bedtime story a biker might tell his kid, but it teaches a valuable lesson and the bell symbolizes one of the most powerful things in the biker’s life – the friendship of his fellow riders.
As you might know, there are many other symbols that bikers are fond of, such as the iron cross or a flying eyeball, but these were the ones we thought portrayed the image of the bikers in the best way possible. We hope you learned a thing or two about these symbols and more importantly – we hope you enjoyed reading this.