Body Art Tattoo Designs - Examining the Rose and Symbolic Meanings of Color Symbolic Meanings Of The Rose.The rose is very popular in body art designs for both men and women. It represents love, birth, and death -all of the elements nature embodies. The rose itself is fragile yet endures the heat of the sun and drought in the summer, survives torrential floods, lies dormant through harsh winters to be reborn in the spring as strong and vibrant as ever.