I wanted to do something to commemorate all this, but I honestly didn't know what to do. Getting a new tattoo seemed like a good idea, but I couldn't really decide what. I'd settled on a cliche-tastic vampire design that I'd drawn but it just didn't seem like the right time. I almost gave up on the idea but I'd been drawing a lot of mythology-based nonsense, and almost by accident, drew a little doodle of everyone's favourite Norse trickster deity.
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| Loki tattoo design... well, that's what I think he looks like, anyway |
Now anybody who's heard me wax lyrical on the subject of mythology will know that I have a bit of a thing about tricksters, and Loki in particular. I find him fascinating. There's so much about him that's ambiguous; his relationship with the Aesir (and with the jotnar, come to think of it), his sexuality, his skills, his motivations, even his gender is in flux. I know a lot of people think of him as evil, mainly due to the fact that Christianity doesn't like mythologies where there's not an antagonist, but I really don't subscribe to that interpretation. I see him more of a representation of the Other and a creature of chaos, and chaos by default is neutral (unless we're talking D&D alignments!) Or to put it in an even-more pop-culture-y way and steal a line from The Dark Knight; "that's the thing about chaos. It's fair."
On a far more basic level, Loki represents change. The change he brings about is often painful, he does things that seem cruel and pointless but it usually turns out to be necessary. Take the shearing of Sif's hair, there's no real reason for him doing that, he just calls it a "joke", but without that seemingly random act, there would be now Mjolnir and no Gungir (and no Loki's Wager for that matter). Even Ragnarok is a necessary change. Ragnarok isn't really an end-time myth, it's a renewal myth. Its survivors huddle around the regenerated Yggdrasil and the cycle begins again.
Thinking of Loki as change, the drawing seemed like a perfect choice for a tattoo. This year has been all about change. And, yeah, it's been a kind of Viking-y year, somehow. Does this mean I'm devoting myself to him in some way? No. Does it mean I'm going to stop worshiping other deities? No. My world view pretty much allows for all deities from all pantheons to exist, but I only really worship those from the Graeco-Roman, Norse and Egyptian pantheons, with a little bit of Celtic mythology thrown in. This is mainly because I don't think one can worship a deity unless one completely understands them and their child-cultures (or parent-cultures, depending on how you look at things). There's no point trying to sing a song in praise of someone you hardly know. Of the pantheons I do worship, there are certain deities that I know very well and feel a particular connection with; those are the ones I would say I actively worshiped. Loki is one of them, but he's by no means the only one. If I had to go right out on a limb and name a "patron", I'd be tempted to say Persephone. I've been drawn to her since childhood, long before I started actually worshiping the old gods, and eventually I plan to get a tattoo in honour of her. I feel I owe it to her.
So now I'd settled on the design, it was just a matter of finding a tattooist. I'd heard good things about Evolution Tattoo in Kidlington, so I took the bus out there to try them out. I showed the guy the design and he said fine, he needed to tweak it a bit but he'd do it. So I booked myself in for three weeks later. I was really excited when I rode out on the bus to see what they'd done with the design. I was set up to be disappointed: the tattooist had completely changed my design and turned it into an old school tattoo design with a hippie-ish witch lady. He'd even changed the flames. He asked whether I liked it and I had to say no. I had to explain that, no, the androgynous figure was definitely male and had to explain who it was supposed to be. I was slightly disheartened when the chap didn't even recognise the name.
In the end he made it very clear that he had no intention of drawing in my style, he flat out told me, "no offense to your drawing or anything, but if someone brings in something I like then, y'know, I'll do it but I'm more comfortable drawing my own stuff." So I told him, no offense to his drawing or anything, but we clearly have different aesthetics. It was all very disappointing; a waste of a day, and of the three weeks wait, and then there was the nuisance of getting my deposit back.
So, back to the proverbial drawing board. I trawled the interwebz for a while, looking at various tattooists in the area and ended up of the website for local generic "alt" shop, Tiger Lily. My first tattoo was done there nearly six years ago, and to be honest it wasn't great, but looking at their site they had new artists and their work was actually pretty good. So I popped in (using it as an excuse to buy a Hellbunny cardigan too) and lurked by the tattoo and piercing area. A rather ominous looking chap came up and asked if I was waiting to get a piercing, and I explained what I was there for and he said "it's time, isn't it?" At which point I tried not to laugh.
He let one of the tattooists know I was lurking, a friendly chap known as "Mad Mick" who specialises in black and grayscale work (and does some fairly impressive portraits). I showed him my design and he took a photocopy of it and told me to pop back in later in the week to have a look at what he'd done with it. I did, a week or so later, and it was spot-on, almost exactly what I'd originally drawn.
So this Sunday I finally went back in to get the tattoo. It took about two hours on and off, sprawled on a stretcher in the tattoo parlour listening to Planet Rock radio (which kept going funny when Mick used one of the power sources for the tattoo gun) and chatting to Mick and the other tattooist, Chris. They even bought me a cup of tea.
It wasn't too painful until late in the session, when my skin was starting to get sensitive and generally fed up. For most of the session, it was the tickling feeling of the vibrations that was most uncomfortable, and trying to keep still when things are tickling isn't easy.
Still, by five o'clock it was all done, looking something like this
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| One fresh, slightly sore Loki tattoo. Or Lopt-tattoo as I've taken to thinking of it |
I'm really pleased with it. It looks pretty much exactly how I wanted it, and I was really impressed with what he did with the shading on the cloak. He left in all the important details; the mistletoe, the scars around the mouth and the bindrunes at the bottom. Plus, it still leaves my little triangle of moles uncovered. I like those moles.
Two days on and it's healing fairly well. It's a little uncomfortable to lie on, but it's stopped weeping and the skin is starting to tighten where it's going to scab.
Oh and for anyone looking for tattoo aftercare, that Tattoo Goo stuff seems pretty good and it smells of lavender and rosemary, which is quite nice.
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