Torn Up

Beltaine Ink 2: Colorful Kali

Kali

This gorgeous Kali is another tattoo I was blessed with photographing on Beltaine. This tattoo belongs to the gracious Chelsea, who will be making more appearances here at NeoPagan Ink, and was inked by the fine folks at Electric Voodoo Tattoo in Springfield, Missouri.

Venus of Willendorf 2

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This stunning tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Arbuford24 and is licensed under Creative Commons.

The name "Venus of Willendorf" is something of misnomer. Yes, it was found in Willendorf, Austria. But the original statuette isn't really a representation of the goddess Venus, for she dates from approximately 25,000 BCE, which makes her much older than any mention of Venus or her Greek counterpart Aphrodite. She was given this name to make clear her importance as a very early goddess figure. You may ask why she looks the way she does. We don't really understand it and can only make educated guesses. She's probably a large woman to represent fertility and plenty. After all, only a people with lots of crops to harvest can grow so hefty. Her large breasts also play into the same ideal: large breasts produce more breast milk making for strong healthy babies. Those notions seems pretty straightforward to me but not all her characteristics are so obvious.

What I wonder about most is her face. Why is she-essentially-faceless? It may be because the ancient artist couldn't begin to put a face on the divine and so didn't try. It could be a representation of the facelessness of women, meaning her ability to produce healthy children was more important than her looks or her mind and opinions. It could be any number of things. Whatever the original reasons behind the statuette the Venus of Willendorf has become a much-revered image among modern pagans and is a personal favorite of mine. Enjoy.

You can see another Venus of Willendorf tattoo here.

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?

Lady Justice

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

8 January is a day sacred to Justitia, Roman goddess of, you guessed, justice. I imagine the ancients didn't imagine their goddess with such an impressive chest but it's a nice tattoo nonetheless.

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.

Athena: Watchmen Style

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This gorgeous Athena tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Ohnocriso and is licensed under Creative Commons.

This tattoo is based on original art by Dave Gibbons from the comic The Watchmen.

Spider Fairy

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This ooky fairy comes from the Flickrstream of Opacity and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Just another dark goddess type to mark the season! I'm kinda thinkin' this might be based an original painting so if someone knows anything about it be sure to speak up.

Sad Zombie Lady

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This sad zombie lady comes from the Flickrstream of tattoo artist Trev Poulson who works out of Loyalty Tattoos of Clearfield, Utah and is licensed by Creative Commons. If Trev's work looks familiar that's because his work has been featured here before in the form of the gorgeous Headless Lady.

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.

Lotus

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

This tattoo was inked by Kelly at Tattoo Zone is Rockaway, New Jersey.

We will first turn to Egypt. As the lotus sinks under the water at night and reemerges when the sun returns it was closely associated with the sun. It was also linked with the idea of rebirth and was thus closely tied to Osirian cult as Osiris ruled over death.

The lotus features more heavily in several Asian religions, especially Buddhism and Hinduism. Many deities are depicted as standing upon lotus flowers; Vishnu, Brahma and the goddesses Lakshmi, Sarasvati and Kubera are among the most closely associated with the lotus. Within the realm of Buddhism it is said that everywhere Gautama Buddha stepped a lotus would spring forth.

Grapes

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These grapes come from the Flickrstream of Rambleonsylvie and are licensed by Creative Commons.

Today is the festival of the Vinalia Rustica; it is a day to make offerings to the ripening vines. It is a day belonging to the goddess Venus (Greek Aphrodite) in her aspect as patroness and protector of gardens, olive groves and vineyards. This day also marks the founding of her oldest temple in 293 BCE.

Fawn

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This gorgeous sleeping fawn tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of tattoo artist Mez Love and is licensed by Creative Commons.

Once upon a time Finn mac Cumhail, a warrior of heroic proportions, was out hunting when his dogs refused to kill a white deer he had been hunting. Later in a dream the goddess Sadb told him that, due to a spell cast upon her, she had been transformed into the white deer he had chased and that only his love could free her. It was a love he freely gave. Unfortunately, after Finn had been called away to war the sorceror who cast the original spell reclaimed Sadb and she could not be found. Years later Finn was out hunting again when he came across a naked boy who, though knowing nothing of his father, knew his mother to be a deer. Finn instinctively knew this boy to be his son and named him Oisin, which translates as "fawn". Oisin grew to be a great warrior like his father but, taking after his mothers, also became known as the greatest poet in Ireland.

Nile River Goddess

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This tattoo image comes from the Flickrstream of Thomas Hawk and is licensed under Creative Commons.

The goddess on Jessica's forehead is commonly known as the Nile River Goddess. The original figurine dates from about 4000 BCE which makes this goddess older than the Pharaohs. It is thought that her arms are raised in prayer to the star Sirius as the annual flood, which brought life, prosperity and power to Egypt, occurred for thousands of years on the day Sirius appeared in the heavens.

Pegasus

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This gorgeous Pegasus comes from the Flickrstream of UKDaveW and is licensed by Creative Commons.

The Pegasus is most closely associated with Medusa, dark goddess of Greek mythology. She was once a beautiful maiden who was, through no fault of her own, transformed into a hideous Gorgon, with snakes growing from her head, whose gaze turned her victims to stone. When the hero Perseus used his shield to reflect her killing stare back at her she was herself turned to stone. Pegasus, the magical winged horse, sprang from her pregnant body.

As you can probably tell, Medusa is one of my favorite mythological figures. To see a gorgeous Medusa tattoo visit this post from March.

Hecate and Fae Ink

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These very cool tattoos come from Aelwyn and were created by artist Robin Farnham.

Aelwyn had this to say about her ink:

The first is a Wheel of Hekate. This is on my left inner wrist. Hekate is my Matron, and I honour Her with Her own shrine daily.

The second is the Elven (or Faery) Star on my inner right wrist. I work with the Fae (and Otherkin of other sorts), and felt this was a nice balance to the Wheel.

Thanks so much to Aelwyn for sharing her tattoos! She's the first submitter since the first birthday of NeoPagan Ink!

Lady Liberty Pinup

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

The Statue of Liberty, on which this pinup is obviously based, is itself based on ancient images of the Roman goddess Libertas and the god Apollo. Libertas is a goddess of freedom from slavery, tyranny and oppression. From Wikipedia:

This symbol of Liberty and Freedom is not standing still or at attention in the harbor, it is moving forward, as her left foot tramples broken shackles at her feet, in symbolism of the United States' wish to be free from oppression and tyranny.

The seven rays on her head are said to represent either the seven continents or the seven seas. However, her entire head is very heavily inspired by images of the god Apollo who also often had seven rays of the sun coming from his head and who is closely linked to the sun as well as reason and learning. The torch represents enlightenment.

Happy Fourth of July to my fellow American neopagans!

Assyrian Ink

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This nifty tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of MyTat_2 and is licensed under Creative Commons.

This tattoo includes several different Mesopotamian images that have been combined to form a unique piece of art. The wings are a fairly well-known image, often associated with Ahura Mazda as in the image below.



The star in the middle is usually representative of the planet Venus and, thusly, the Akkadian goddess Ishtar, and her Sumerian counterpart Inanna, who was closely associated with the planet.

It's always nice when I manage to find tattoos of Mesopotamian subject matter. To be clear, the term Mesopotamia covers a wide range of cultures that existed between or around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq, parts of Iran, Turkey and Syria. It includes the Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Akkadian and Uruk cultures. The mighty Persian Empire was/is closely related to Mesopotamia through conquest. While the aforementioned nations are all linked by geography and - to some extent - religion and style they are by no means identical. Even the cultures of Babylon and Sumer, which had their cores in the same exact spot, are unique. And all are fascinating and loaded with beautiful images of their gods and goddesses. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of this imagery to be found on skin. To that end, if you manage to find any that's licensed by Creative Commons I'd love to have a link!

Triple Moons Sunset

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This tattoo was created by Randy Fox at Panama Fox Tattoo in Panama City, Florida.

This lovely and unique tattoo comes from Lea Anne and the importance of this tattoo is inspirational, to say the least. Here's what she had to say:

I got this tat a few weeks after I got out of the hospital. I had been suffering from undiagnosed depression for years, and I'd finally broken completely and tried to commit suicide. Fortunately or no, I survived the suicide attempt, but I was in a coma for about a week. I felt like the Goddess took my life in her mouth, chewed me up, and spit me back out--alive. She obviously did not feel that it was time for me to die, despite my best efforts. I got the tat to remind me to live, not just exist. The sunset in the center is to remind me that there is beauty in the world every day, and I should not just notice it, but take part in it.

Thanks to Lea Anne for sharing her gorgeous and meaningful tattoo!