Moon Pentacle

I'm just loving this tattoo! This belongs to a fella named Bob and comes from Rate My Ink.

Today is the Roman festival honoring Luna!

Unique Tree

This unique tree comes from Jennifer and was created at North Texas Tattoo. Jennifer is the 22nd person to submit art to NeoPagan Ink! Yay! I really like this tree, it looks wild and natural unlike some tree tattoos that come out looking unnaturally symmetrical.

Thanks to Jennifer for her submission!

Ma'at

This beautiful Ma'at tattoo comes from Rate My Ink.

Freya Back Piece

This very nice Freya comes from Rate My Ink and was created by Thad Rickey at Marks of Art, San Jose, California. I know the photo quality isn't very good but I just had to post this; it's so nice! Be sure to click the image to see the larger version.

Citrine Fairy

This lovely tattooed and pierced fairy was created by avi-of-scott. Be sure to check out her gallery, she's got a lot of really neat fairies!

Dragon and Phoenix

This gorgeous tattoo of a dragon and phoenix comes from JB Welchel's Flickrstream and was created by Loki at Holy Mother Tattoo out of Atlanta, Georgia.

Ostara Bunny

This pretty bunny comes from Leslie Levings' Flickrstream. And, even though it looks like it could be a cutting it is indeed a tattoo. Very cool.

Have a blessed spring equinox!

Sparrow

This pretty little sparrow comes The Curateur. The sparrow has a rich history in tattoos but is here because of its mythological association with the Norse goddess Iduna. She is the bearer of the apples of life who personifies the lighter half of the year and appears on this day as a sparrow.

Athena

This vibrant Athena comes About.com's Pagan Tattoo Gallery.

Today is the celebration of the birth of Athena (Roman Minerva) called Quinquatrus.

Shamrock

This groovy Celtic knot work shamrock comes from The Mental Nomad Podcast.

Today is the national Irish celebration of Trefuilnid Treochair which is the festival of the "the triple bearer of the triple key" (who later became Saint Patrick), associated with the sacred plant of the shamrock.

And just in time I found a five-leaf clover and both I and my young cousin found four-leaf clovers. Yay!

Bacchus

This very cool Bacchus comes from romana klee's Flickrstream. It is based on a 16th century woodcut by Jost Amman. I know I've seen the original somewhere before and I can tell you this is a very accurate rendering. Unfortunately, even after a half hour of searching, I was unable to find an image of said woodcut to offer up for comparison. So, you'll just have to take my word for it that it's very well done.

Anyway, 16 March is the beginning of a two-day festival honoring this Greek deity (Roman Dionysus) of wine, youth and general wildness that promoted a good grape harvest. So, for you wine drinkers out there be sure to raise a glass for Bacchus and the grape growers of the world.

Finger and Hand Symbols

These nifty tattoos come from ~b-kreep's DeviantArt page. Apparently, they are self done. From the site:

The one on my index is an Ankh, Egyptian for eternal life; middle is a "Pagan" symbol to cause sleep (I have fibromyalgia & don't sleep so good); third is a Native American symbol (Medicine Man Eye) for wisdom; pinky finger has the Norse rune of protection & watchfulness, Algiz.

Pretty neat, eh?

Triple-Nature Tattoo

This very cool tattoo comes from the DeviantArt page of Croatian tattoo artist Gamavision.

A Darker Side

This amazing ink drawing was created by KitsuneAteAGreeley. Be sure to check out her site, she's a talented artist. I'm loving her ink drawings, they have an Aubrey Beardsley feel to them but they're more feminine and earthy. Very nice.

Pandora

This gorgeous Pandora, and her box of diseases and viruses being freed upon the world, comes from The Loom which is a great collection of science type tattoos. Be sure to visit the site to read what the owner, an immunologist, had to say about the significance of his tattoo.

Medusa

The tattoo: Dave Brewer, Trigger Happy Tattoo, La Habra, California. Image from Matthew Graner's Flickrstream. The original painting: Caravaggio, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 1597.

I've always had a soft spot for Medusa. And it's not just because kids used to use her name as an insult toward me because of my wild and crazy hair and I've since empowered myself by studying her. Okay, that's a large part of the attraction. But it's also because she just got a really bad rap. Yeah, she got caught in the arms of Poseidon in Athena's temple, but hey, who's gonna say no to a god? And, for that matter, she might have said no to him in first place but been raped anyway. After all, Greek gods weren't exactly immune to the charge of rape.

Anyway, I can understand Athena being pissed off, but enough to turn her into a monster just so Perseus could whack her head off so that the head could be on her shield? Seems pretty harsh to me. But then, I like snakes. That's not to say I want them growing out of my head but still, she's a pretty unique figure.

Mandala

This beautiful mandala comes from Jeff Johnson, an artist out of Newbury Park, California.

Another Blue Dragon

This very cool dragon comes from Forbidden Images Custom Tattoos out of New Port Richey, Florida and was created by artist Jeremiah McCabe. They've got some really nice art especially in their myth section. Be sure to check it out for some good eye candy.

Peacock Feather

Today ancient Romans would celebrate Junonalia, in honor of Juno (Hera), the queen of the gods. On this day 27 girls in ritual attire would would accompany the image of the goddess through Rome. Her legends tell us that peacocks drew her chariot and were thus sacred to her.

This image is from 3DGorillaBob's Flickrstream.

Tree of Life

This nifty tattoo comes from lunanymph's Flickr page. (Don't ya just love that name?) The tree of life's traditional name is Crann Bethadh and aside from being a popular symbol on its own is also the symbol associated with the Celtic god Ceadda, who is a deity of healing springs and holy wells. Ceadda eventually became known as Saint Chad who was known to spend all night immersed up to his neck in a holy well as a form of meditation. For these reasons this is a good day to clean up around holy wells and to leave offerings of fresh flowers.