It may be time, pt 2

Yes, I’ve been obsessing today about getting a possible tattoo; reworking vague ideas in my head and looking for examples. I’ve been trying to find myself a way to reward myself for working weekends, through massive frustration, and long hours and this seems like one of the better ways I can think of rewarding myself.

If someone talking their way through design ideas bores you, I’d skip this post. I’m hiding the rest behind a <more> tag to spare you from having to read my tedious design discussion.

I am going to build off the reindeer design I use for my rune posts as the general style of the overall tattoo, if the artist feels comfortable with what I am proposing. Unfortunately, there are no good examples that I can find of the other elements, so any artist will have to come up with their own design, rather than work from a direct reference.

Here is that image, although I am sure you are familiar with it if you’ve been around here at all:

It has that petroglyph feel, albeit a bit more modernized and stylized. And that’s okay. I’m not looking for realism, I want to keep the design minimalist. I was all ready to just go with this except, while I was looking for possible examples of the other animals, I came across this tattoo, which I loved:

The element that grabs me is the circled cross between the antlers and want to adopt that element into my own design, without maintaining the above’s more granular/dot style — I am still keeping my original stylized look.

Now, honestly… Those are the only really workable images I was able to find. You’ll have to use your imagination for the other two elements.

Below the reindeer, I want to have an orca that is similarly styled (compared to old red) facing the other direction and heading towards the surface (upwards), the body arcing to “cradle” the reindeer.

Finally, again following the style of the red reindeer, above it all, a raven or crow designed to tie in and balance the image.

Placement: either inner right forearm or outer right forearm. Colors: Primarily black, with red for the crossed circle similar in shade to the reindeer I am using for my primary style. Size: as big as it needs to be, but not bigger.

The only really “newish” element is the orca, the rest of the imagery has been on my mind for several months or longer. The orca ties in nicely with my personalized theme and recent changes in my understandings from my soulwork. Ravens and crows have been a part of my life for nearly 30 years (or longer), and reindeer have been part of my spiritual thoughts for about two years (although I kept that to myself until recently).

Of course, I’ll need to sleep on it, but as it has started coming together, I got to thinking the right tattoo design and imagery may have finally found me.