Tattooing

Regenerative Culture The Fabulous Forager
#21

Going back to the bit about honey:

It contains(not forms) hydrogen peroxide, which is one reason it never really goes bad. It’s been found crystallized in ancient tombs.
Hospitals have been known to use it on severe burn victims. It prevents any infection and promotes fast healing, while protecting/moisturizing the area. Sometimes has negated the need for skin grafting.

The book “Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers” (which tells you everything you could want to know about honey) claims massive, bone deep wounds can be quickly healed with honey.

Maybe mix some yarrow or similar herb with it for extra healing.

I’d imagine balsam fir blister resin would also work.

1 Like
#22

Honey is a rare gem indeed… Bees need more appreciation!!

#23

Chase, where are you located? I’m in Los Angeles and you’re comment on the dots-on-chin sounds awfully like the tribes that live here.

All right… past that invasive comment. Not a native but grows locally, I know the skin of the black walnut produces a black dye. Charcoal was common. There’s also a fungus that grows on the agave that produces a red dye. Unfortunately, I don’t know if the black walnut or the fungus would be any good for tattooing but I’ll check into it a little more.

Best

Bill Maxwell

#24

[quote=“TwoRoadsTom, post:23, topic:721”][quote author=chase link=topic=771.msg8965#msg8965 date=1205956314]
Ai’ve been seriously considering a small tattoo on my chin (admittedly in imitation of a tattoo used by various tribes in my region), but ai’m at a loss as to what plants to use. Ai’d like to get black and medium to dark green. Plants in the southwest region or common cultivars are apreciated!
[/quote]

Chase, where are you located? I’m in Los Angeles and you’re comment on the dots-on-chin sounds awfully like the tribes that live here.

All right… past that invasive comment. Not a native but grows locally, I know the skin of the black walnut produces a black dye. Charcoal was common. There’s also a fungus that grows on the agave that produces a red dye. Unfortunately, I don’t know if the black walnut or the fungus would be any good for tattooing but I’ll check into it a little more.

Best

Bill Maxwell[/quote]

Aim in southern Orange County. Yea, general trend of tattooing in this region.
Also, ai didnt know there was a red fungus that grows on agave. All ai know of is the stuff on prickly pears that was so valuable to the Spanish as a red dye? Same stuff?

#25

Hey coastal cousin! Good to meet you. Ayep, we’re thinking of the same thing; white fungus, bleeds red. Found on cactus – ack, agave! What was I thinking?! – that gives us prickly pears and nopales.

If you have a chance, talk to the Tongva about their tattoo practices. You doing the Ancestor Walk this year (sacredsitesca.org)? You might be able to talk to some folks in the aftermath of that.

Best

Bill Maxwell

#26

If it is the same thing then ai think its an insect eggcatch. Ai might go on the ancestor walk; ai was also thinking of going to the agave harvest (not sure about details, just heard about it). But this is sorta getting off topic…

#27

Just a general warning to everyone about tattooing: while finding inspiration in tribal tattoos is harmless, directly copying the tattoos that you see on indigenous people is often a mistaken idea. Those tattoos can have meanings you don’t know about (many tribes use tattoos for indicating family lineage, for example) and of course it would be extremely disrespectful to take the meaning away from the people it belongs to… so it is always a good idea to research the tattoos you want to get and if you are at all in doubt, please use them just for inspiration instead of duplicating them directly.

#28

Lets create our own tattoo style !

:smiley:

(i <3 tattoos, designed a few for my mates >.<)

#29

so, i’ve found out that around here people have used hawthorn thorns for needles, and devil’s club ash mixed with bear fat for ink. but i’m having a real hard time finding more detailed info (paleoplanet was no help), like what’s a good way for making devil’s club ash? how much should i mix with how much bear fat? how would i sterilize a hawthorn thorn? anyone found more detailed info?

#30

you want devils club charcoal, not ashes. t

#31

cool, do you know a good way to make it? thanks.

#32

In search of germanic tattoos I came across this blog with a compilation of good ones. I would like to know the stories of each of them.

#33

Odin, Odin, Odin. Neo-Germanic religion is one great big Odin-party.

But if you look closely at the more zoomorphic elements of some of these designs…and notice how similar they are to many elements of Celtic and Pictish designs, I believe you are catching a glimpse of what remains of the much earlier, animistic European spiritual tradition.

#34

Can you elaborate on that Monica? That is very interesting!

#35

From the google dictionary:
zoomorphic: “having or representing animal forms or gods of animal form”

Zoomorphic designs can be found in Pictish rock carvings, and their presence in Celtic art predates Christianity. Both Picts and Celts carved animal forms with stylized swirls incredibly similar to those seen on Viking stones, which suggests they probably all originated from the early European culture that predates the division of the Celtic and Germanic languages. You can view examples here: http://www.pinterest.com/monarose9212/european-petroglyphs/

We know little about the Picts, but I keep running into threads of information on early Pre-Christian Celtic and early Germanic religions explaining how people “worshiped” local rivers, mountains, forces of nature, etc. The time frame corresponds pretty well to the earliest rock carving examples. We do know that animal forms were often “totems” of European tribes and clans, (which later lead to heraldic animals), and may have also represented different forces or spirits or the elements in a similar way to Coyote, Raven, (tricksters), Thunderbird, (Lighting and thunder) etc in Native American mythology.

Carvings of horned human-figures exist in both Celtic and Germanic art, and correspond of course to the spirit of (or the human connection to) the woods/nature/the wild/the wild hunt. The concept of spirits of trees, and lakes, earth and rock, continued on in verbal mythology as the notion of dryads, moss maidens, nayads, goblins, trolls, etc, but they are further evidence of early European animism–albeit anthropomorphisized.

Animism probably roughly corresponds to stone age, and early bronze age. But as people transitioned to iron age (and agriculture), it seems that the idea of animistic forces transitioned into polytheistic gods–gods that were less connected with the land and nature directly–perhaps because people would not want to think about the spirits of living nature when they were so busy domesticating nature? It was much easier to separate the idea of gods from the land). But many of the animals that are associated with the various gods still seem to correspond with the animals seen in earlier imagery. Of course, some of the earlier gods still are more connected with their animistic origins. Thor is one of the oldest Germanic gods, and of course corresponds to thunder and lightning in an anthropomorphisized form.

(I just edited all this, I typed it quickly before and it needed to be made quite a bit clearer)

#36

Here are some more zoomorphic images on Pinterest, that might give you some inspiration: http://www.pinterest.com/monarose9212/zoomorphic/

BTW, I never ended up getting any tattoos, but the only time I ever briefly considered it was back in my college days, (the mid-1990s believe it or not), when my obsession with the film the Dark Crystal was in full swing. I took a fancy to some of Brian Froud’s sinuous, creaturey symbol designs for the film (most easily seen in the Art of the Dark Crystal book)–they were the only thing I could ever imagine still liking years down the line. Looking at them so many years later, it is now obvious to me that they draw their inspiration from the very same zoomorphic sources I was just discussing–the original form of which, are currently about the only things I would currently consider as inspiration for a tattoo design these days, if I was wanting to get one.

#37

0din’s name means, literally, ‘insanity.’ there is narrative and archaeological evidence to suggest that he wasnt always at the top of the hierarchy of gods, but that the god more associated with war - and ancestor worship - tiw - whose name means ‘glory in battle’ - was the head honcho in ancient times. 0din was originally the patron of ecstatic trance and shamanic journey, being accompanied by the wandering raven spirits ‘memory’ and ‘mind’. although raised as a god, 0din is explicitly half-giant, as his mother is mother earth. thunder - thor- is his son, by another giantess, making him 3/4 giant. giants, called ents or ettin, depending on the language spoken, almost invariably are named to embody natural phenomena, such as fire, shadow, ice, etc. loki, the trickster, is 100 percent giant ancestry and in my mind, is a variant spelling of ‘logi’ - the sacred fire, which corresponds well to the ‘coyote steals the fire’ myths. this giant, ‘logi’ in old norse, would have the unattested form of ‘lig’ in english, which forms the base of the words ‘light’ - originally meaning a torch - and ‘lightning,’ which is erroneously associated with thor these days. thor, as a traitor to his mother’s people, goes around murdering giants, presumably the lightning that he ‘‘follows’’ after.
as for runes, of which the name means ‘mystery’ - lets try to keep this in perspective - what hunter-gatherer people went around writing stuff?

#38

Hey All this is an awesome topic, a bit off topic… Should I split this into a new topic called, “In search of European Ancestral Stories”?

I have a few things I want to say about both that and tattoos, but I think they go in different categories?

#39

[quote=“Peter Michael Bauer, post:38, topic:721”]Hey All this is an awesome topic, a bit off topic… Should I split this into a new topic called, “In search of European Ancestral Stories”?

I have a few things I want to say about both that and tattoos, but I think they go in different categories?[/quote]
yes

#40

Yes Peter, I also agree that the topic of ancestral religion and mythologies should have its own topic.

oakcorn, I really like your thoughts about the true origins of the giants, which also seem to correlate well with the ancient Gaelic lore of the so-called “little people”, which were actually (I think RJ Stewart talks about this) beings or forces that were vast and powerful and huge. Calling them “little people” may originally have been a kind of protection against them, but ultimately let to their literal belittlement in people’s minds.

I need to do some more research on “viking stones”, but I think that runes are only on the most recent ones. And I don’t get the impression that runes were ever used as part of a full written tradition–more as a way to mark or honor things, or imbue them with power or magic.

Oakcorn, I don’t remember the source, (maybe RJ Stewart again?), but I have read that a more powerful version of Thor existed really early on, then was later absorbed into the Germanic pantheon, and reduced to a lower level (son of a more powerful god, rather than at the top). Have you read this anywhere? I wonder how that would affect the idea of the gods vs. giants mythology.

I also find it very interesting how very similar the Germanic gods vs. Giants mythology is to the Vedic gods vs. Asuras mythology. Yet another reminder of the original Indo-European roots of all of this.