Symbolic Trio

Angelic Devil and Fairy

More Beltaine Ink

Here's another tattoo from Beltaine!

Beltaine Ink

This lovely tattoo comes from the even lovelier Larissa who made a great May Queen for some recent Beltaine festivities I attended. It was inked at Electric Voodoo Tattoo in Springfield, Missouri. This tattoo is just the first in a series of many great tattoos I was able to snap photos of while celebrating the day. I hope you all had as good a Beltaine as I did!

Dogwood Blossoms

White Dogwood

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 The above is a nice tattoo to celebrate our blossoming spring here in the Northern Hemisphere. This tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of TheNinth and is licensed under Creative Commons. These pretty flowers were inked by artist Adam at the Baltimore Tattoo Museum. FYI, the dogwood is both a flower and a tree and is the state tree/flower of my home state of Missouri!

Happy spring!

Green Man Chest Piece

Awen's Green Man

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Here we have another reader submission, this one from Awen 13 who says:

The center piece is the green man which has six additional faces within the design.  On my chest there are five bind runes and two other symbols.  The two pentacles on my upper body are ancient symbols from Hebrew texts.  The tattoos were done by Shad Perlich who did a fantastic job. 

Thanks so much to Awen 13 for sharing his great tattoos!

Awesome Triskele

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This gorgeous tattoo comes from reader Kitsune and was inked by Nathan at Sailor Jim's Electric Tattoo Company out of Logan, Utah. Here's what Kitsune had to say about her tattoo:

In the tattoo itself the Triskele shows that all three principles of Eolas, Fírinne and Dúlra are connected to each other. The Irish Gaelic around the triskel says ” Truth, Nature and Knowledge” which are the three flames that illuminate all darkness, in an Irish saying. The acorn and oak leaves represent growth in knowledge and strength..It reminds me to always step in the direction of these three principles with strength and commitment. My Celtic ancestry guides my heart naturally to these and If i steadily grow with them I cannot fail.

To read more about Kitsune's tattoo, visit her very interesting blog.

And thanks to Kitsune for sharing her beautiful tattoo!

Amazing Horned God

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This positively gorgeous Cernunnos comes to us from reader Richard who says:

It is a representation of The Horned God, Cernunnos, or Herne. To me it is symbolic with my connection to him as one of my patrons and was done as a devotional act to honor our bond.

Thanks so much to Richard for sharing his stunning tattoo!

Irish Pride Chest Piece

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This gorgeous chest piece comes from the Flickrstream of ChiBart and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Happy Saint Pat's!

Evil Leprechaun

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This nasty fellow comes from the Flickrstream of Ragz1138 and is licensed under Creative Commons. He was inked by the fine folks at Katalist Konsepts out of Fort Collins, CO.

Baba Yaga via Hellboy

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This awesome, albeit unfinished, tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Armchairdj and is licensed under Creative Commons and, according to Armchairdj, was inspired by the Hellboy version of Baba Yaga. The more finished tattoo, seen here, is not listed under Creative Commons hence the link instead of that unpleasant copyright infringement thing.

The playing card is from an official Hellboy game and, just like the comics, features the art of Mike Mignola.

Baba Yaga is a fairly evil witchy character who lives in a hut set on chicken legs in the forests of Eastern Europe. She is surrounded by the usual skulls and bones and also somewhat typically devours the foolish who wander into her midst. In ancient Slavic myth Baba Yaga was probably one of the many Great Goddesses who suffered demonization under the comparatively new religion of Christianity. The fact that she travels via a mortar and pestle and sweeps her tracks clean with a broom points to her older, more authentic status as an Earth and healing goddess as a mortar and pestle was/is used to grind herbs with the intention to heal the sick. The broom is an obvious reference to cleaning a physical space but was/is also used by witches to ritually cleanse an area of negative emotions and so further compounds the idea that Baba Yaga can rightly be interpreted as a benevolent deity.

Botticelli Ink

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Okay, so it's still in progress but I don't care. This Birth of Venus, from the original Botticelli masterpiece, is too gorgeous to not post. This lovely tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of artist Shannon Archuleta and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Venus, or Aphrodite if you're more inclined to the Greek side of things, was born from the foam, we all know that. But what many people don't realize is that, according to Hesiod, she was born from the foam of the ocean because Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus. Said member was thrown into the sea which became pregnant and voila! Venus. Her older, Greek name, Aphrodite, comes from aphros "sea foam". How's that for a birth story?

Iris for Imbolc

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These lovely tattoos, of iris and a butterfly, come from the Flickrstream of Rambleonsylvie and is licensed under Creative Commons. This tattoo, except for the original butterfly, was inked by artist Tom Meyer.

The iris is just one of many flowers associated with the spring-is-coming-please-hurry-up holyday of Imbolc so I thought it fitting to share this nifty tattoo.

Incidentally, this Imbolc marks the 11th year since my initial dedication to the pagan path. Yay for me!

Tiger Totem

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This tattoo comes to us from reader Heather! It was inked by artist Alex at Good Times Tattoo in Salt Lake City, Utah. Heather had this to say about her gorgeous tiger:

I've always been attracted to tigers and everything that they stand for. My very first tattoo was of one and I feel like it's not just my totem but that perhaps I was one in a prior life. My love for them surrounds me and my home.

Thanks so much to Heather for sharing her tattoo!

Cornucopia Ink

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This gorgeous tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of my_new_wintercoat and is licensed under Creative Commons. (To see another cool tattoo from my_new_wintercoat, go here.)

This tattoo was inked by Mike at Black Cat Tattoo out of Boise, Idaho.

The word "cornucopia" means "the horn of plenty" and is most closely associated with the Greek goddess Copia, a goddess of prosperity and plenty, who carried it with her. She belongs in the posse of the goddess Fortune, goddess of fortune and luck. There are various versions of its origins. The most popular one states that the cornucopia was originally a goat's horn from which the god Zeus drank as a child. To protect him from his father Chronus, who was eating all of his children to prevent them from usurping him, Zeus was sent away to live in a cave. The story goes that either the goat herself tore off her horn to nourish the infant Zeus or that he, jerk that he could be, tore it from her head. Now, you might ask, how does a horn, from the head of animal, provide milk to feed a child? I don't know, I really don't, I just work here. To read more about the cornucopia visit The Flower Shop Network.

Boar

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This supercool boar was inked by the fine folks at Mod Tattoo out of Stoughton, Wisconsin and belongs to reader Richard. He had the following to say about it:

The boar is a totem spirit of mine and represents my connection to the Earth and also protection, particularly my role as protector of my family.

Thanks to Richard for sharing his tattoo!

Snake Oil Ink

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This nifty tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Opacity and is licensed under Creative Commons.

I guess this is technically an advertisement but it's so cool I don't care. The oil refers to a product of the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, which just happens to be one of the coolest stops for your aromatherapy and other witchy needs. What I like most about this tattoo is it's similarity to old fashioned hoodoo items.

Killer Cat

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This supercool tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Tlindenbaum and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Headless Lady

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This cool tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Trev Poulson and is licensed under Creative Commons. Trev is a talented tattoo artist who works at Loyalty Tattoos and Piercing out of Clearfield, Utah.

Here's a nice dark goddess to brighten up, or darken down, your Samhain season. Don't know if this an original work by the tattoo artist or someone else. Either way, it's very nice. I like the contrasting use of color and black and gray. She's one hell of a sexy goddess.

Pomegranate

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This tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Ragz1138 and is licensed under Creative Commons.

This tattoo was inked by Ragz Rejected of Katalist Konsepts out of Fort Collins, Colorado. (Also home to the beloved Mez Love whose work has been and will be featured here many times!)

30 September marks the ancient Roman holiday in which Meditrina, goddess of medicines, is given fruit offerings.

The pomegranate, however, is also a key element of the myth of Prosperpine (Roman) or Persephone (Greek) and the ancient explanation of the seasons. Persephone was the daughter of Zeus, chief of the Greek pantheon, and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. The story goes that while she was out gathering flowers in a field Hades, god of the underworld and one of her many admirers, caused the Earth to open up so that he could rise up and grab her. Her mother Demeter was in such distress after she went missing that she neglected her duties. The crops began to fail and the people began to starve. Eventually the other gods interceded and Hades promised to release Persephone but only after giving her a pomegranate. When she ate of the fruit it caused her to be forever tied to the Underworld which meant she had to stay there at least one third of the year. During this time her mother Demeter refused to let any plants grow which created the season of winter.