Does a Blackwork Tattoo need to mean something?

If it doesn’t have meaning is that a problem? We as people seem to be constantly looking for meaning in this life. We see patterns and look for its producer. Experience coincidence and search for the Creator. There is something hard-wired into us that means we seek out answers. The problem with answers is that they create more questions and it is in this quest for answers that we have reached our tech-savvy, top of the food chain spot. There is a hunger to understand those things which mystify and confuse us. But maybe sometimes, things are just as they are, just because they are.

I create abstract tattoos to steer away from the obvious meaning of an image and reach more towards the intangibles.  More times than I can remember I have been asked what my tattoos mean. The honest answer is that it depends on who you’re asking when you’re asking them and where they are in life. A design I put onto someone’s skin could represent one thing to me and something completely different to the wearer.  And that’s OK. We are different people, on a different path with a different frame of reference.

Understanding I don’t need to understand

For a while, I tried to “educate” people on what I wanted my tattoos to represent. Now I understand it’s not important. The tattoo itself will have an objective nature, whilst people viewing it a subjective opinion. All of them valid.

Instead of this opinion being formed by overt representation, I want to evoke an emotional response. A stirring below the conscious level that forces people to search within themselves. By looking for the obvious meaning in tattoos we actually diminish the greater cause for why we tattoo. Now I don’t claim to know why as a species we seek to permanently mark our bodies and subject ourselves to the pain of a tattoo. But sometimes a superficial glance may give us greater insight.

Glance Don’t Stare

The fact that there’s a calling within us and an ability to get tattooed at all is the most profound meaning of any tattoo I have come across. Yes, the date and time of our children’s birth are important and on an individual level very meaningful. Does it make a suitable tattoo? Maybe. But why do we permanently mark our skin with this info? Is it to mark a significant event in life that we’re unlikely to ever forget anyway?

Perhaps, but there’s that urge, that desire to mark ourselves in this way. And we want it to mean something. Something very important. But as a species, there is NO greater reason for getting a tattoo other than the plain and simple fact that somewhere, buried within us is a calling to do so.

Wise Choice

Of course, I’m not suggesting that any time your fancy takes you towards a tattoo it should be acted upon. Let’s be honest, that’s what our younger years were for (they’ve kept me very busy with coverups over the years). What I’m saying is to listen to the calling within. If it’s there honour it and understand it for yourself. Don’t over complicate things. Do your homework, take your time and make a wise decision.

Now the real meaning

Despite all of the above, I do still build a narrative in my mind when I’m designing a tattoo. Getting a read on the person whilst I’m drawing on them and what the tattoo will say about them once we’ve completed it. The significance it will have on their life whilst also thinking about the hours of pain they will endure and how the process, as well as the end result, will transform not just how they look but also how they see themselves.

For inspiration, I don’t just look to my client’s story but also that of tattooing. This is one written in blood over thousands of years and I allow both to guide my mind and my hand in creating a meaningful tattoo.

In my next blog, I will share an example of how I intertwine the threads of a story and create the fabric of a tattoo.

Further reading: PAIN-FREE TATTOOING! HOW TO DEAL WITH THE PAIN OF BEING TATTOOED