Archive of Celtic
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Friday, March 19th, 2010
Hey – Sometimes it rocks to just break out of the box and put your own spin on ancient art!
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!
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Where’s Waldo?
Friday, February 26th, 2010
From Awen’s archives… check out the watercolor gray work. It’s an unusual effect you don’t see everyday, providing depth and texture to a tattoo. Ka Chow!
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
New art done in 17 minutes! Just kidding. (Got your attention, though, huh?.) Okay, here we have the most recent addition to Nate’s Celtic back piece. You will experience a Where’s Waldo moment if you look closely… Check it out: three of the challenges facing us with this piece were: 1) Tying in the existing tribal piece on the left, 2) Connecting the two existing open strands from the lower left and right sides to the new work, and 3) Lining up the new knot work to fit in a symmetrical way with the existing knot work. Stay tuned for photos of the completed work in a couple of weeks. (A photo of Nate’s right shoulder addition were posted on the Art With a Point FB page back on 1/2/10.)
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
I always get excited about having the opportunity to tattoo a portrait. It’s a style of tattooing that isn’t often requested, is extremely challenging, and incredibly distinctive. When tattooing a portrait, it’s important to have multiple clear photos to work from in order to most accurately render the subject. However, as you’ll see here, even when working from one photo an accurate photo realistic representation is possible.
