Big Devon Ink

Click image(s) to see the larger version(s).

These fabulous images come from reader Daniel and were inked by Lisa Schmoldt of Otherside Ink out of Port Charlotte, Florida.

Here's what Daniel had to say about his tattoos:

Green man, Faerie mask of truth and Fae. Markers of the end of my long residence in the UK and a sort of tarot reading of my life at the moment. (What a long story that is that weaves round and round Devon ./ Devan. below is the tale I told the artist....Here's a picture (again) of my last and my first home. It was originally several miners cottages, the earliest dating from the late 1600's. The miners, a mixture of Norse, Yorkshire and Cornish folk were all very superstitious, believed in a host of other-world residents, including fairies, pixies, underground goblins and the Norse beargaust or mountain spirit. I pretty much re-did the house room by room out to the bare stone over the course of 20 years feeling and discovering the work of hands long gone from this earth. Both the children were brought home to that house from the hospital, and was their home for almost their entire life.A village full of friends, job and home. It was an amazing wrench to tear me free from there, driven by my wife of 25 years need to be back in the states, and by her decision that soon she needs to leave me..one of the main reasons for the fairy tattoo...Change, ties to the old country (and a late 1600's garden where the fae could dance on any given night), my reminder to myself to seek beauty and magic in a time where I saw so little of either in my life. The cottage was named Kipling's Cottage, after Rudyard Kipling's grandfather who was a lay preacher in the village. Kipling visited his grandfather there and one of his poems is titled "On Greenhow Hill" (the name of the village) and is about a soldier, telling of the village life to a comrade as they await the appearance of a sniper that has been harassing their company. Kipling's last book was a children's story collection titled "Rewards and Fairies" (I only found the last out after you linked the fae and I for life....) Kipling was English, lived a long time in America, and eventually returned to England to live in Devon...After my long stay in England (in Kipling's Cottage), I've returned to America and you tied me forever to Devan! (the name Lisa gave the Fae as she inked her into me) Since then, the fairy has been joined to the Green Man. He's one with the earth and seasons. He's the male element of nature. Between them lie the mask of truth, chosen by you on a moments whim or inspiration. In that aspect I see myself as the Green man, of the earth, tied to the cycles of work and the world, wandering the earth, I often need to touch stones, old buildings, trees. I put my feet in the oceans wherever I go to feel them on me. When I went to Alice Springs, I risked all manner of parasites and god knows what to drink from the original Alice Spring rising from the sands. Yesterday before coming to see you I went and stood in the Gulf (my first time there) to feel it and take it into me. With the addition of the green man and mask, I'm seeing my wife as the Fae, in her own world, separate from my world, yet she's been my magic, beauty and joy past, and between us the mask of truth that we are now both holding up, trying on and showing each other our masked truths. I don't know what changes these truths will bring, but you placing the mask between us at that time was prophetic, a turn of the tarot cards. Lastly the mask and the green man are both Brian Froud pieces. Brian's home is in ....wait for it..lol Devon. Lastly both my children went to school for their early years at a small Montessori School in an old foresters cottage on the Duke of Devonshires estate in Yorkshire. So many turns and twists that come back to the same things...

Thanks so much to Daniel for sharing his amazing tattoos and great background information with us here at NeoPagan Ink! And here's the aforementioned Kipling's Cottage to finish off this great post. Thanks again Daniel!


P.S. You can see more Brian Froud art in tattoo form here and here.

P.P.S. The fairy is from an Amy Brown piece.