Tattoos
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Got a new bit done today.
Lines:
Colour & shading:
(Still quite raw and angry here.)We’re riffing on Sailor Jerry’s “Sailor Beware” design (below) so instead of the things a sailor should avoid, it’s the virtues a person should aspire to.
Take the dive...
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@EdH nice one!
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Been wanting a Yosemite Sam tattoo forever so I finally got this sick one from Fergus at Smith Street the other day.
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Got my fingers blessed by Swasthik Iyengar on Sunday. Pretty brutal experience but worth it.
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@Oaktavia Thanks, dude! Had been wanting to do this for a while, and I'm glad I waited for Swasthik to come around so I could get it done properly by a woman from the culture.
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Damn, that looks brutal to get done. What’s the culture/tradition/significance/meaning? I’m completely unfamiliar.
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Damn, that looks brutal to get done. What’s the culture/tradition/significance/meaning? I’m completely unfamiliar.
I'm going to try to explain based on my knowledge without bastardizing it, but this is how it was explained to me (not being from that culture).
The patterns themselves are Indian Kolam or Kolangal designs. The specific patterns or designs themselves don't hold specific cultural significance, and it is totally acceptable to have them as someone who is not part of that culture. But there is power in the lines, and the designs themselves are said to be symbolic of good luck and prosperity, and are meant to ward off evil spirits.
The ritual of receiving them I believe is more significant than the tattoos themselves. As I understand it, they should only be tattooed by a woman (one who can give life) and should come from someone within the culture who has had the art form passed down to them (Swasthik learned to tattoo this style from her grandmother in India). And it should be considered an honor to have them applied in this way.
So in some ways, it's not totally unlike a Con Safos tattoo in that there is significance in how it is passed on and the symbolism behind it moreso than in the tattoo itself.
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Very cool! I found this interview with the artist because I was curious about her style: https://homegrown.co.in/homegrown-voices/swasthik-iyengars-tattoos-are-a-celebration-of-self-discovery-indigenous-artforms
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@jskidder Thanks for the explanation. They're very cool. I hope they heal up well and nothing drops out of the knuckles!
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I like that Justice looks kind of slutty
Much as I like the classic design, I've got a baby girl so I specifically asked my guy to make sure that Lady Justice has her hips turned away, rather than have her arse out like Jerry drew his!
The idea for this sleeve is to riff on Sailor Jerry's and other American Trad-style compositions to introduce a bit of Stoic wisdom for life. I've got a whole day with my guy booked in three weeks or so, should get a lot more done then.
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Here’s the work I got done yesterday. A few more pieces to do, but the sleeve is getting there.
First up, a pin-up-girl Angel on the front of my traps, reminding me to do good deeds. Edit: I just realised we forgot to give her a halo…
️ Will have to get that sorted…
Next up, a pair of daggers on my forearm. Epictetus has this bit about grabbing an event by its sturdy handle: “Every event has two handles, one by which it can be carried, and one by which it can’t. If your brother does you wrong, don’t grab it by his wronging, because this is the handle incapable of lifting it. Instead, use the other—that he is your brother, that you were raised together, and then you will have hold of the handle that carries.” There’s many ways of taking this advice. There is opportunity to be a better person in even the worst events that befall us in life, or perhaps choose to interpret misfortune in a way which is empowering (my neighbour who had a very nasty and near-miss health scare recently has chosen to tell himself that he is a survivor rather than dwell on how close he came to dying or how the health service fucked up and should have caught the disease sooner, for instance). So we went with a pair of daggers, one with a smooth handle, which should be grasped, and one with the snake and skull warning you off of it.
Next, a torch on the back of my triceps, except we have made the torch into a spindle, around which are the threads of one’s fate or destiny, fuelling the flame on top, and an ouroboros. These are references to the idea of amor fati, or “love of one’s fate”. Marcus Aurelius has this bit about being like a fire - whatever you throw in the fire just makes it burn hotter - the idea being that whatever comes your way in life is fuel for your fire. The Ouroboros harkens to Nietzsche’s idea of the eternal recurrence, I.E. living as if you would gladly live the same life over again eternally. By accepting that our individual paths through life are what make us who we are, we can love our own journeys.
Lastly, we did a compass on the shoulder, with the needle pointing towards the cracked and dented end, with a more wilted flower. This represents the idea expressed by Marcus Aurelius when he said “ Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intentions or dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” It’s a reminder to tackle the obstacle in your way, whether that be a personal flaw or weakness you need to work on, or a seemingly insurmountable project.
Anyway, enough guff from me for one evening. We still have a few more pieces ready to put into the sleeve when my guy has time over the next few months, and I think we will have a big space left on the inner bicep if I can think of another way of representing a piece of Stoic wisdom by riffing on some more iconic American trad tattoos. Both my tattoo guy and I have really enjoyed this project - it’s fun to think about how to represent these ideas in this medium, and he tells me he’s really enjoying doing the drawings and coming up with the compositions from my ramblings whenever I email him new ideas.
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@EdH nice, great work
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Nice! Beautiful stuff @EdH . My girlfriend and I read a page of the Daily Stoic in the morning with coffee, and we just read the bit about the handles the other day. I love that quote. Fave so far is "I will lay siege to the gods, and shake up the world" from Seneca.
