For me and many brits like me, I associate strawberries with summer, so the first symbol that came to mind was of strawberries and cream in Wimbledon. So, she wears a polo shirt, ponytail, and a visor with the ‘Strawberry Letter’ 23.
Compared to the other ‘main’ fruits like apples and oranges, I couldn’t think of many associations off the top of my head, so I turned to the internet.
Throughout history, strawberries have remained a symbol of sweetness and goodness. In ancient Nordic culture, the spirits of dead babies grew into strawberries, as which they would be disguised from darkness as they ascended to heaven. So, the berries were often not eaten.. Strawberries were a gift from Freya/Frigga, who was a goddess of many things, including beauty, love and fertility, and cried tears of gold. Upon the transition to Christianity, it was Mary who was adopted the association with strawberries. She was said to love them so much that anyone who entered the gates of heaven with strawberry juice on their lips would be turned away.
In Shakespeare’s Othello, the handkerchief of Desdemona (who is first epitomised as sweetness itself, so that her character may be besmirched) is embroidered with patterns of strawberry plants. It later is spotted with red blood in her murder.
In Bavarian folk tradition, strawberries were gathered and hung in baskets from the horns of cows to ask local nature spirits for healthy calves, and strawberry leaves in a woman’s pocket would help relieve the pains of pregnancy. The Romans believed strawberries alleviated misery. The Seneca people of the northeastern US associated the fruit with rebirth, and believed they grew along the path to heaven.
Strawberries were a symbol of Aphrodite also, and they remain a ‘sexy’ fruit, usually when with chocolate. Folklore says that those who share a strawberry will fall in love.
However, during the middle ages, the berries were eschewed by the upper classes after an abbess declared that they were not fit for eating, because they were close to the ground where toads and snakes did slither.
Strawberries have remained an icon of sweetness, EG, Strawberry Shortcake (or her cat, as featured her), and as such are open to be subverted, as by Strawberry Switchblade.
The Strawberry Moon is the name given long ago to the full moon of June, since this was the time of year that wild strawberries fruited.
Her tattoos feature some weird strawberry worship from Hieronymous Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthy Delights’, and of the Beatles, plus the original ‘Strawberry Hill’ signage.