Tattooed thoughts

I really like tattoos.

To me, they’ve always been an attractiveness multiplier. Sure, you see some here and there that aren’t great, but in general an attractive person is even more attractive if they have some nice tattoos.

I go through phases where I think about getting tattoos myself. There are some ideas that I’ve been kicking around for years, but I’ve never taken that final step to actually commit to getting one. Part of it is all the usual reasons people don’t get tattoos. Part of it is that I’m not really happy with my body and think that tattoos just won’t look that good on me as I am. Part of it is that, even though I have things I like and kind of want, there hasn’t been a ‘perfect’ tattoo idea that has pushed me over the edge.

Flame's Burden runic veve

That may have changed.

On the cover of The Flame’s Burden there is a runic veve design. A veve is a religious symbol used in vodou; each loa has their own unique design that acts as a representation of that spirit during rituals. The religion of the people of the Sundered Land heavily borrows from vodou, and so similarly each of the lesir, the spirits they follow, also has a veve associated with them. The veves of the lesir are a bit simpler than those of the loa, and incorporate a little inspiration from futhark runes into their design. The one on the cover of The Flame’s Burden belongs to Lorajaðr Virdingsson of the Hyrr family of lesir, the patron spirit of the protagonist.

The design is a stylised bonfire, with cinders rising above it, and also doubles as a stylised sun rising over the horizon, below a trail of stars. When worked into a pendant or other object, the shape that is formed is meant to invoke the outline of a warhammer or axe.

I was looking at the cover of the book and it occurred to me that it would make kind of a cool tattoo. So I drew it on my wrist, and turns out I really liked it. The way the trail of cinders/stars peeks out from the cuff of a long-sleeved shirt is kinda nice, too.

It got me thinking that it would be kind of awesome to get a tattoo for every book that I publish. The tattoos would have a lot of meaning to me, personally, and it’s a thing that will be completely unique to me. I’ve been thinking a lot about this for a few weeks now.

The Sundered Land series of books will be easy–they have the runic veves on them that are perfect for this sort of thing. I could continue up my forearm, and maybe add some embellishments or colour to help unify the design into a whole rather than just leaving it as basic linework.

The Post-Apocalyptic Gothic series is a little more difficult. Prometheus’ Daughter doesn’t have an easy visual motif for me to work from. I could use something generic-ish that is in theme for it, like a DNA helix or something, but I’m not hugely keen on generifying my tattoos. My second Post-Apocalyptic Gothic novel, working title The Man from Porton Down, is relatively simple in comparison–the hardware designation from the Porton drone, a series of numbers, maybe done as though it were stencilled on with spray paint. I really like watercolour tattoos, and I’ve got an idea for a small sun with a solar flare arcing off it done in that style, maybe with the flare and corona hugging the other Post-Apocalyptic Gothic tattoos.

I’ll have to ponder some more. A friend recommended that I start a Pinterest board and start saving images for inspiration, so I might do that.

 

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