Hey guys, I am in the process of designing (more-or-less by culling visual expressions of an ideal) a personal tattoo for Gay Pride of next year, so...bare with me a min.! First off, I was wondering if anyone could recommend a selection of books with which one can research symbology and ideograms?
Now...what I have planned is a butterfly rendered in a tribal motif! But, because it bugs me to see other cultures getting leached off of or folks calling "tribal tattoos" "tribal" when they bare no meaning and is merely art, I want it to be repleat with meaning, containing shapes and symbols through the intersecting lines denoting such things as courage, or Pride, etc. (Of course, I will need to meditate on what "Gay Pride" means to me, make a list, and then look for symbols that both historically express that idea through a symbol, etc.) Sadly, none of my own book or extent resources have availed themselves to my necessity at the moment.
Although, the butterfly itself does bear significance: it represents beauty; was believed to be the soul in many cultures; while red butterflies were thought to be witches that have shape-shifted; and it's transformation represents liminality and transformation (it's the only creature known to be able to completely alter its DNA); and during the 1970s (though I have foud no surviving images and references to this) lavender butterflies were symbols of Gay Liberation; even in Spain a derrogative word for a gay man in *mariposa*, which means "butterfly"; I also think the butterfly may have been a symbol for Eros who was the especial Patron of same-sex desire in Greece. I was also thinking of having two black dots diametrically opposed incorporated into the motif to represent the balance of the posative and the negative; the light and dark; as well as the masculine and the feminine, etc. Often one will note relatively "meaningless" free-standing dots in neo-tribal tattoos, so I thought I would borrow from this and impune it with some *real* meaning!
So...I was wondering if anyone might have any ideas for source-references for symbols and ideograms, etc.? Sadly, I haven't been able to find much on-line, such as through Symbols.Com (my usualy "go to" source).
Take Care,
Wade MacMorrighan
Now...what I have planned is a butterfly rendered in a tribal motif! But, because it bugs me to see other cultures getting leached off of or folks calling "tribal tattoos" "tribal" when they bare no meaning and is merely art, I want it to be repleat with meaning, containing shapes and symbols through the intersecting lines denoting such things as courage, or Pride, etc. (Of course, I will need to meditate on what "Gay Pride" means to me, make a list, and then look for symbols that both historically express that idea through a symbol, etc.) Sadly, none of my own book or extent resources have availed themselves to my necessity at the moment.
Although, the butterfly itself does bear significance: it represents beauty; was believed to be the soul in many cultures; while red butterflies were thought to be witches that have shape-shifted; and it's transformation represents liminality and transformation (it's the only creature known to be able to completely alter its DNA); and during the 1970s (though I have foud no surviving images and references to this) lavender butterflies were symbols of Gay Liberation; even in Spain a derrogative word for a gay man in *mariposa*, which means "butterfly"; I also think the butterfly may have been a symbol for Eros who was the especial Patron of same-sex desire in Greece. I was also thinking of having two black dots diametrically opposed incorporated into the motif to represent the balance of the posative and the negative; the light and dark; as well as the masculine and the feminine, etc. Often one will note relatively "meaningless" free-standing dots in neo-tribal tattoos, so I thought I would borrow from this and impune it with some *real* meaning!
So...I was wondering if anyone might have any ideas for source-references for symbols and ideograms, etc.? Sadly, I haven't been able to find much on-line, such as through Symbols.Com (my usualy "go to" source).
Take Care,
Wade MacMorrighan
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Iowa
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Re: ISO Tattoo Ideogram Resources!
Wed, October 24, 2007 - 4:44 AMthe book "Modern Primitives" has some great tattoos from different cultures and different ages.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode...ves_(book)
spiralshaman
