TATTOOS OF FEBRUARY

MILAN TATTOO CONVENTION- This is an annual convention that takes place in Milan, Italy. It features some of the illest tattoo artists from around the globe. It was my first time attending and I was dazed by all the booths of sick ink pushers doing their thing!! I got some work added to my sleeve- an mayan god named Pauhuatun, my boy Ethan Morgan hooked it up, and my shorty got a half sleeve, a beautiful traditional chinese landscape from this dude YZ tattoos. Shige of yellowblaze.net was also there but unfortunately booked for like 3 years!! DAYUM

p.s. there's a lot of other good youtube videos of the convention i was too busy running around to really capture everything

TATTOOING VINCENZA- I have a sister stationed in Italy.As soon as I came back from the convention she had a big ol list of soldiers that needed some ink. I ended up being pretty busy out there. Heres some fliks of the work i did.

DAISY-I tried to research this flower and found a gang of different daisys most if not all are under the bellis family but they got a lot of freakin daisys out there and Im sure they all have their own properties and stories to tell.. sorry if Im being vague on this one but i'ts late, I did not get much sleep last night and its a leap year and tommorows the last day of FEB. so I gotta finish this months newsletter...ok ok so bust it since the daisy is one of the most common and basic flowers in its beauty and simplicity it is a symbol of innocence... I didn't make that up ...anyway -heres a picture and a video..



CELTIC CROSS-Many sources of ancient wisdom note the number 7 as a prime sacred number because of the union of a male number (4) and a female number (3).In some cultures even numbers would be considered female because they had the ability to be evenly cut in half and therefore reproduce. Many growing civilizations were laid out in quadrants using squares crosses and right angles. Round villages were replaced by square ones with the intention of directional quadrants north east west and south. They also linked to 4 elements, winds, guardians etc. Some knuckle heads believed the earth was flat and had 4 corners... crosses made of imaginary straight lines from the 4 corners of the world were created where the lines would join..like a primitive latitude and longitude. Crosses symbolized male gods before christians used this symbol. It would represent god's sacrifice which took place in the center of things.

The symbol that is known to the majority as the "celtic cross" was known to the Hindus as the "kiakra" a sign of sexual union the cross within the circle (phallus within yoni). The Gypsies whose original home was Hindustan, used both elements (circle and cross) as sexual symbols they marked a male horses leg with a cross and a females with a circle and hoped that they'd hump and not run away, like all cross designs this one too was adopted by Christianity.

The shamrock is a symbol of Saint Patrick and to the country of Ireland. Some symbology like that of the 3 heart shaped leaves representing the triple mothers of celtic lore was given to the clover. However this symbol was not solely Irish. Its name came from the Arabic shamrakh which was an emblem of a lunar Godess of pre Islamic Arabia. The shamrock was not greatly liked by Christians in Ireland so a new notion of a 4 leaf clover being luckier was taking place also because 4 was the number of the cross.

Still some others believe the original root of the cross symbol had a zodiacal nature.

DRAGON VS. PTERODACTYL -The beginning of a quick color back piece of 2 savage beasts duking it out. Pterodactyls are actually not considered to be dinosaurs. They are classified as pterosaurs because they do not have an upright stance like dinosaurs. Pterodactyls are classified as reptiles and are very closely related to dinosaurs. They lived during the Cretaceous period about 144 to 65 million years ago. There are many different species of pterodactyls. One of the smallest Pterodactylus had a wing span of only about 20-30 inches. The largest prtrodactyl found so far is Quetzalcoatlus (look at the mayan tattoo I did reference the name), which could have a huge wingspan of over 40 ft. Pterodactyls were suited well for flying. They had very light hollow bones and wide leathery wings. The body was long and very thin. Pterodactyls had good eyesight which was important for finding food. They were carnivores and ate fish and other animals caught from the oceans. They may have been scavengers on land as well. Pterodactyls lived in many parts of the world. They flourished for many millions of years before they became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period about 65 millions years ago.

Dragons are dope, for those that don't know they are magical and spiritual beings that look like crazy reptilian serpents. Many cultures perceived them in many different ways. Some had them depicted as huge giant creatures and some as small as a thimble. In most Asian cultures the Dragon is usually seen as wise and benevolent, A ruler of the weather, great respect and honorary symbolism have been associated with it. In China some Emperors used the dragon as a symbol of their royalty, 9 different types of dragons are shown in their literature, temples, homes and palaces. At birth Dragons would represent the male and the Phoenix would represent the female. In most European cultures dragons are more malevolent, however there are few exceptions. Native Americans thought of dragons to represent the primal forces of nature and the Moche had them all over their ceramics. So many tales legends and mythological stories tell of dragons and their magical powers.

GAELIC WRITING- The words Faith, Love and Hope are written here with the triquetra separating each word. Gaelic is a Celtic language spoken in mainly Ireland. There are also Irish speakers in the UK, the USA, Canada ( and Australia. According to the 1996 census, 1.43 million people in Ireland claim to have some knowledge of Irish, 353,000 of whom speak it regularly. The main concentrations of Irish speakers are in the Gaeltachtaí, which are scattered mainly along the west coast of Ireland and have a total population of 82,715, 76.3% of whom speak Irish. Irish is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages, also known as Q-Celtic. It is closely related to Manx and Scottish Gaelic, the other Goidelic languages. There is some degree of mutual intelligibility between them, particular between the Scottish Gaelic of Islay and Argyll, Ulster Irish, and Manx. The grammar and vocabulary of these languages are similar, but the spelling and pronunciation is different, especially Manx spelling. Irish first began to appear in writing in the form of Ogham inscriptions during the 4th century AD. When St Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century, Irish writers began to write in Latin, while at the same time, Irish literature written in the Latin alphabet began to appear. The Viking invasions of the 9th and 10th centuries lead to the destruction of many early manuscripts, so most surviving manuscripts were written after that time.

The Triquetra is an ancient symbol of female trinity. It is composed of 3 yonic vesicas (vessel of the fish) interlaced with a circle around it. It is a gateless design and protective symbol.