“WHAT” YOU TATTOO IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT
are you stuck trying to decide what to tattoo because you’re searching for the perfect subject?
don’t stress yourself out, the subject might not be the most important thing, think about the context, and everything else will follow naturally ^_^
in today’s article, I want to talk to you about the importance of context when we’re working on designing a tattoo
context is everything
context literally changes everything
like day and night in a midsummer night’s garden: nothing changes about what’s there except the context, the light or its absence, and everything changes its appearance, meaning, emotions, and purpose
to show you how everything can change by changing the context, I will tell you the story of 12 paintings I created: my zodiac signs
I started studying the zodiac signs 2 years ago just with the intention of drawing them
I need to understand things to draw them
and when I understand them, I understand what’s beneath them, I understand the emotions inside, and the result is that I can no longer draw the standard little things we all immediately think of
I can’t draw an Aries, a Leo, a Taurus, fish, an amphora, and a scorpion just because that’s what everyone has in mind when they think of the zodiac signs
No
I studied the archaic psychology said to be associated with each zodiac sign, which defines a character trait
I immersed myself in what could be the feelings of someone living with those character traits and then found my way to represent them
all 12, all alike and yet different
you know, there’s a particular philosophy related to ancient Greece that describes the zodiac signs as the hero’s journey:
12 stages, 12 challenges, 12 goals, 12 different ways to dream of a better world, 12 different characters trying to achieve it, and 12 different obstacles to overcome
the hero’s journey of the zodiac signs: this philosophy inspired my drawings
so I imagined my hero as a little bird, cute, plump, and cheeky
and the hero is always the same in all 12 paintings, only the context changes, changing the story, life, loves, problems, dreams, passions
like us humans: seemingly all the same, yet each of us lives in a different context
so let’s start
let’s start with Aries and continue in order with Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Virgo, Leo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and finally Pisces