But there is one location where the fleur-de-lis can be seen more than anywhere else: on someone's body. In several different designs and styles, fleur-de-lis tattoos are proudly shown off all over Louisiana.
But what does this symbol mean?
The origin of the fleur-de-lis is a highly debated one. In several ancient civilizations, flowers were used to signify royalty and high status. French naturalist Pierre Augustin Boissier de Sauvages wrote:
"The old fleurs-de-lis, especially the ones found in our kings' scepters, have a lost less in common with ordinary lilies than the flowers called flambas, or irises, from which the name of our own fleur-de-lis may derive. What gives some color to the truth is this hypothesis that we already put forth, is the fact that the French or Franks, before entering Gaul itself, lived for a long time around the river named Luts in the Netherlands. Nowadays, this river is still bordered with an exceptional number of irises - as many plants grow for centuries in the same place - these irses have ellow flowers, which is not a typical feature of lilies but fleurs-de-lis. It was thus understandable that our kings, having to choose a symbolic image for what later became a coat of arms, set their minds on the iris, a flower that was common around their homes, and is also as beautiful as it was remarkable. They call it, in short, the fleur-de-lis, instead of the flower of the river of lis. This flower, or iris, looks like our fleur-de-lis not just because of its yellow color, but also because of its shape: of the six petals, or leaves, that it has, three of them are alternatively straight and meet at their tops. The other three on the opposite, bend down so that the middle one seems to make on with the stalk and only the two ones facing out from left and right can clearly be seen, which is again similar with our fleu-de-lis, that is to say exclusively the one from the river Luts whose white petals bend down too when the flower blooms."
Legend tells that Clovis I (481-511 AD), the Frankish king who united all of the Franks, upon his baptism, was handed a fleur-de-lis by a vision of the Virgin Mary.
When Pope Leo III crowned Frankish King Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor in 800 AD, he received a blue banner with golden fleur-de-lis on it, which may have given birth to the legend of the Virgin Mary appearing to Clovis. Charlemagne's coronation crown had fluer-de-lis added to it a few hundred years later.
Eventually, the future French monarchs would adopt the fleur-de-lis on their coat of arms as a symbol for the conversion of Clovis. From then on French Kings would plaster the symbol on scepters and rings, signifying their rule.
The fleur-de-lis would not just appear on the French coat of arms, but would make an appearance on the English coat of arms as well. King Edward III (1327-1377 AD), who believed he had a claim to the French throne, added the symbol to the English coat of arms, where it would appear off and on until the 19th Century.
Eventually, as French settlers moved to the New World, the fleur-de-lis followed. In French Canada, the fleur-de-lis became a popular symbol, but it eventually found its way to the city where it would be most associated with : New Orleans.
Fast forward a few hundred years and now the fleur-de-lis has become corporately prostituted. In 1967, the New Orleans Saints were founded. They needed a symbol; they picked the fleur-de-lis. Now hordes of Saints fans brand themselves with the team's emblem in a show of support. It currently seems that everything that the fleur-de-lis stood for has now been engulfed by black and gold.
But these Saints fans are just posers. Rewind a few hundred years back and there was another group of people being branded with the fleur-de-lis in New Orleans: slaves. New Orleans was one of the largest slave ports in the Antebellum South. Slaves who were to be punished, especially ones that were guilty of illegally gathering in crowds, were first whipped and then branded with the symbol of the fleur-de-lis.
Now I'm not saying that people shouldn't get fleur-de-lis tattoos because slaves were branded with them back in the 19th Century. That would be foolish. I just think it's funny that a few hundred years ago, having a fleur-de-lis tattooed on your body was a sign of punishment, now it just means you either really like New Orleans or its football team. But symbols change over time; like the swastika for example. A symbol that was once synonymous with many ancient civilizations has now been stigmatized with being associated with the Nazi Party. Or Guy Fawkes, the English Catholic fighting to overthrow one theocracy just to install another, is now remembered as a hero and a champion for personal liberty.
And I'm also not advocating that you don't get a fleur-de-lis tattoo. If you have one, that's great. Good for you. I just find it a little silly that a symbol that once appeared in paintings with Charlemagne, is now associated with something as historically insipid as the term "WHO DAT."
