Our journey through the years began before I turned 30, and it ends (at least for this telling) last December, when I am 48. There was a three and a half year gap between the last tattoo (yesterday’s story) and this one. Sometimes it takes a while to save up enough pennies, other times I’m not inspired (which means I don’t NEED new ink at that point), often it’s just personal, life stuff just doesn’t drop into place so we keep moving forward and wait for the right moment.
I had researched this particular one for quite some time because it was an image I’d been drawn to since I was first made aware of it in about the 7th grade. It resonated with me, in a way I now know is a past-life connection, or memory. You can google around to see the many faces of its representation. People have been “discovering” goddess images for a huge amount of time now, and that’s because, on a planetary level, goddess culture reigned for a huge amount of time. Followers naturally crafted symbols of their deities. In what we now call The Greek Isles, some of these icons have been named Minoan Snake Goddesses. They have been found with many different styles of headdresses and several different patterns of embellishments. They are made of many different materials and in a wide variety of sizes. But the basic shape remains consistent: full breasted, tiny waisted with bell-shaped skirts. For the Winter Solstice 2009, after months of sketching, adjusting, and researching, Wulff and I put my interpretation of her into ink.
We put a Horns of Isis type of symbol on her head because it felt the most true to me and he chose this patterning on her dress because that felt the most authentic to him. We also changed her arms. In all of the ones we could find, she either had both arms up, or both arms down, always with a snake on them, or in her hands. I went for something in between (being all asymetrical and all), and he wrapped a snake with green coloring around her left wrist, to match mine. (He’s thoughtful like that.) Next year we are going to add some extra tones to her waist, it ended up looking kinda blank as we originally had it. Yesterday you saw both my arms together, here’s my legs.
That’s all I’ve got. And now you know why. No, I have nothing for the 5th Element, no tattoos on my back or chest. Yet. Any questions?
