History
Prehistoric
Eurasian
practice since 3300BC, tattooed mummies, therapeutic?
Ancient
world
China
·
Criminals,
slaves and bandits
·
Popular culture
Egypt , India,
Indonesia
·
Cultural
symbols among tribes
Philipines
·
Form
of rank and accomplishment
·
Magical
qualities
Europe
·
Pre-Christian
Germanic, Celtic and central and northern European tribes heavily tattooed
·
Picts:
dark blue woad tattoos or scarification
·
Scandinavian
Rus 10C blue hand and arm tattoos tree patterns and figures
·
Seen
as elements of paganism during Christianisation
·
Greece:
slaves
Japan
·
10,000BC
(Paleolithic) spiritual and decorative
·
17C-mid19C
denote trades / status: firemen, manual workers, prostitutes
·
1720-1870
criminals as punishment
·
Samurai
warriors
·
Tattooing
made illegal creating a subculture of outcasts with visible tats
Samoa
·
Tatau
applied by hand for > 2000 years with little change in tools and techniques
·
Leg
tattoos
·
Painful,
dangerous, expensive, slow, sign of honouring tribal traditions / rite of
passage
·
Seen
as barbaric and inhumane by Christian missionaries
NZ Maori,
Polynesian origin
·
Ta
moko = carved by chisels (of albatross bone, struck with a mallet) left skin
with grooves as opposed to the puncturing of tattoo or tatau
·
Symmetrical,
filigree, spirals, unique
·
Tattooists
considered sacred
·
Denoted
high rank status and rite of passage
·
Men:
face, buttock, thighs (+backs, stomachs, calves)
·
Women:
lips, chins (+foreheads, nostrils, buttocks, thighs, necks, backs)
·
Practice
changed in 19C: needles instead of chisels-safer/smoother; NZers of European
descent collected tattooed heads- ta moko practice ceased
·
Resurgence
since 1990
Persia
·
Tattooing,
body painting and piercing present in culture for thousands of years (gods,
kings, soldiers)
19C
Became
popular amongst the ‘gentry’ in Western Europe
Famous
people with tattoos:
·
Kings
George V, Edward VII, Frederick IX (Denmark), Kaiser Wilhelm II (Romania),
Alexander (Yugoslavia), Tsar Nicholas II (Russia), Alfonso XIII (Spain)-mainly
coats of arms and crests.
·
Prince
Albert, Queen Victoria (rumoured), Lady Randolph and Winston
Contemporary
Have
become more popular in the population in general, especially among women
Fashions
for Celtic and Asian symbols, floral, cartoon and tribal motifs as well as cosmetic tattoos.
References
Pictures:
1000 Tattoos Taschen 2005 ISBN978-3-8228-4107-5
Some of my favourite contemporary artists
Angelique Houtkamp
Classic
designs with a modern twist
Guen Douglas
Sweet,
quirky, colourful, classic
WT Norbert
Similar in
style to Angelique Houtkamp and Guen Douglas
Mr X
Monochrome,
brutal and skilful
Also of
interest
Guy Aitchison
This is a lovely,
colourful, elegant tattoo
Victor Portugal
Dark and
intricate
Franco
Vescovi
Incredibly detailed, dark and elegant
Deano
Cook
Photorealistic style
I also love these
classics from the mid-20C by Ron Ackers
Brief is
to design for a male friend- masculine design and mother’s day card- feminine
design
How to
combine the two aspects?
I asked a
visiting friend, who is a mother with a tattoo for her ideas on how one of her
sons could honour her with a tattoo. Some of her ideas
·
It
should include masculine and feminine elements because he came from his father
as well as his mother
·
Yin-yang
/ sperm shape with a flick at the tail
·
Sperm
and egg looking like a lotus flower, beautiful not sexual although her son
recognises her sexual nature
·
Heart
and flower motif would seem inappropriate as it symbolises romantic love which
is part of her relationship with her partner, not her son
·
Could
include her son’s nickname when he was a very young child (Tita)
·
Should
be a message adult to adult not child to mother
·
‘Made
by initials’
·
A
secret message of love between the two
·
Plant/creation
·
Scottish
/ hereditary theme / coat of arms in a heart
Other (silly)
ideas
·
A
gin and tonic
·
Burnt
toast
·
Black
widow
·
A
foetus tattooed on the abdomen
·
A
portrait
I saw a
wildlife programme on TV about the snow crane and thought to use it as a symbol
of devotion, but 50% survival rate of offspring is not a lucky omen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_Crane
I did an internet
search:
Symbols for
son
Tooth/hands https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR76EsL2GgAaoZyCsLHkCyXgIcGE0jUE_W9OOKlbXzvtc7Yc52g7A
Symbols for
motherhood
Hand and
heart
Lyndsey Lohan
Turga and
Ganesha
Pink
carnation symbol of mothers’ day...not inspiring
Motherhood
symbol in other alphabets (Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Chinese). These tend to
go out of fashion
Arabic love
symbol https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT7uEXgq9yQjQzVngYNOSOW6H7WE3GinszgWR-Y1-SA5cepkghIEA
Japanese
style very fashionable now
Spider
diagram and thumbnails
At this stage
I designed the lettering and decided that I’d like to make a fairly intricate
design in lines to go with it.
I returned to
the idea of using a bird image, further research http://www.squidoo.com/divine-birds led me to find out that the crane was
sacred to mother goddess Demeter in Roman mythology: long life, health,
happiness, wisdom, good luck.
During this
process I was simplifying the crane symbol from full bird to wings to feathers
and found some beautiful feather designs on pinterest
It was very
hard not to copy these but I used my own scan of feathers I’d collected and
internet images of crane feathers as reference, eventually taking patterns and
symbols from tribal tattoos to make the design more masculine.
I sketched
half the basic design in pencil, scanned it, copied it and flipped it over to
check that it worked in terms of symmetry
Then set
about finishing the pencil drawing and inking it in, tracing the outline of the
left half and using it as a template for the right half
I then set
about filling in the patterns, eventually cutting out the line work in
photoshop
I don’t think
the tattoo needs colour but I decided to experiment with the card by adding
layers below the line work in photoshop and inverting the line work to make it
white
On reflection:
I’m very
pleased with my design, it’s definitely not mawkish, I think it successfully
combines masculine (monochrome, symmetrical) and feminine (curved, organic) elements,
symbolism from tribal tattoos and Roman mythology, and the letters reflect the
curved and intertwining elements form the Arabic love symbol and the Triskele,
the Celtic symbol for motherhood.
This was the
first exercise where I really started to explore ideas visually through
drawing, thinking on the page and surrendering to the drawing paid off as it
got me out of several stuck periods.
As an afterthought I decided to transform the design into a vector image by using live trace in illustrator, this has smoothed out the lines and might work better as for the card if not for the tattoo. Now I just need to work out how to add coloured elements in illustrator.
I also redrew the design without the 'mum' using my tablet and vectorised this image, thinking to possibly screen print it onto fabric e.g. a t-shirt.
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