Archive of The Story Behind the Tattoo
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Tattoo Trivia to get your Monday off to a good start… What inspired the Macy’s red star logo? Hmmm….http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/homegarden/86759367.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Celtic week continues… The Celts are deeply symbolic folk. Here’s a nice one – the Tree of Life… Branches reach high into the heavens while roots dig deep into the Earth. Never ending knots, all interwoven signifying the connection between this world, the other world and all living things.
The Tree of Life.
Hey – have fun celebrating today! Have a safe and fun St. Pat’s Day!
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Celtic art conjures visions of knotwork – or what some tattooists call “Celtic Nightmares”. Not me. Can’t get enough, in fact! There are three traditional styles of Celtic design: knot work, maze patterns and spirals. Celtic knotwork is distinguished by its never ending pattern, and also includes Zoomorphic designs (see the birds in the piece to the right). Spirals are typically rendered in three’s, which while attributed to the Holy Trinity is pre-Christian symbolism for This World, the Otherworld and the connection In Between. And then there’s the maze pattern… the path we take as we find our way each day… a metaphor for life’s journey.
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
Yes, it’s the week of Shamrock Shakes, green beer, kilt lifting and (for the rest of us) a nice pint of Guinness and music that is off the hook! Pre-dating St. Pat is the indigenous tradition of Celtic tattooing, so what better time than now to peruse some Celtic art and history?
The ancient pre-Celtic people are referred to as Picts, whose name was a derogatory reference meaning “Painted” used by the Romans for their tattooed enemies. The Gaelic Celts used the term “Curithnii”, meaning “the People of the Designs”… and hey now – I’d say that’s more like it. The Picts were not simply painted but indeed tattooed, using sharp iron tools and a natural plant-based blue ink called Woad.
While not much is definitively known about the Picts (who began to merge with the Gaelic people by the 10th Century), there are Roman accounts of fierce warriors with “wild hair” (apparently lime paste was used to stand hair straight on end) who were “painted blue”. So, for some of us not much has changed I guess.
Here are a few images of how the Picts may have appeared, and a piece of Pictish stone art that I recently had the opportunity to render!
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
I have an addiction to podcasts. Hey, what better than public radio without commercials (or even worse, depressing news) *and* on my own timeline. It’s all that and a bag of chips. So the other day I caught a rebroadcast of Radio Lab entitled, “Placebo”. Great episode, check it out. One theory their guest Dr. Daniel Carr suggests is that pain is dependent upon context, which got me to thinking. I’m constantly asked “Do tattoos hurt?” And my response is always the same, “The experience is different for everyone”. But why?
It’s about context. Speaking for myself, I have an attitude problem when it comes to going to the doctor. I’m not a happy patient. Yet I have a high pain tolerance and a stoic nature. Nine years ago I nearly lost two finger tips in a power tool accident and I was one hurtin’ unit over the next four hours in the ER. Yet, I’ve enthusiastically endured multiple eight hour sessions of tattooing, and have participated in ritualistic piercing.
The pain we feel isn’t about the pain. It’s about the story that comes with the pain. Our stories are filtering the pain even before it’s felt, for better or worse. Consider the context of “What am I losing with this pain?” …As compared with, “What have I to gain from this pain?”
In the context of tattooing, when you believe (or know) that something good is coming of your pain, that this is your story being born on your skin… that this is your healing in order to move forward… then the story you have woven for yourself makes all the difference in your ability to process and sit with the level of discomfort you physically and psychologically feel.
“Scientists currently view our entire identity as something we construct from one second to the next. You are the unfolding of an ongoing narrative. Not just a narrative in words, but touch… odor… We use all of these inputs to generate the next frame from the last frame in our story.”
~ Dr. Daniel Carr
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Mehndi (also known as “Henna”) has, for many in Western culture, become a fashionable way to test drive a tattoo. Mehndi itself is a body art tradition dating back to the 12th Century whereupon Henna paste is painted on the body as an aspect of festive celebration. Straight up, this is the short version of specific and sacred traditions found in multiple Eastern cultures. Sorry for such an abbreviated explanation, but hey – this is a blog entry after all… right?
Anyway, the Henna paste is left to dry for several hours and then removed. The intricate and elaborate stained designs that remain last for weeks. As this form of body art has gained popularity in the west, I’ve received requests to replicate this Henna look in the medium of permanent tattoo. While certain aspects of Mehndi and Henna body art lend themselves nicely to tattooing, the translation from Henna to the medium of tattooing has its limitations. For example, intricate detailing applied temporarily to the surface of the skin can be rendered more finely than intricate permanent detailing within the skin due primarily to how skin changes over time. The piece highlighted here took some strategizing in terms of balancing size with detail as well as use of color, and hey – it turned out pretty sweet!
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
Hey, it’s Valentines Day, but don’t despair! Let’s face it, like other holidays commercialism has tainted that which at its core is meaningful. And that can leave us with, well, a sour taste.
I for one prefer sweet and salty to sour, so why not put a new spin on Valentines Day and celebrate the love and gratitude in your life in your own way? In this case this simple and symbolic heart represents a Mother’s unconditional love for her twin boys. Nice, huh?
So just walk on by the pink and red zone at your local store, take the opportunity to run to the kitchen for a snack when the diamond commercials tell you that only a diamond is forever, and instead take a moment to give props to those important to you in your own way.
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Today at the studio: Norse Mythology. More specifically, Heimdalls Horn.
Heimdall uses his horn to summon the Gods. Go Heimdall!
