Dogwood Blossoms

White Dogwood

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 The above is a nice tattoo to celebrate our blossoming spring here in the Northern Hemisphere. This tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of TheNinth and is licensed under Creative Commons. These pretty flowers were inked by artist Adam at the Baltimore Tattoo Museum. FYI, the dogwood is both a flower and a tree and is the state tree/flower of my home state of Missouri!

Happy spring!

Iris for Imbolc

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These lovely tattoos, of iris and a butterfly, come from the Flickrstream of Rambleonsylvie and is licensed under Creative Commons. This tattoo, except for the original butterfly, was inked by artist Tom Meyer.

The iris is just one of many flowers associated with the spring-is-coming-please-hurry-up holyday of Imbolc so I thought it fitting to share this nifty tattoo.

Incidentally, this Imbolc marks the 11th year since my initial dedication to the pagan path. Yay for me!

Back Snowflake

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This lovely tattoo, on this even lovelier back, comes from the Flickrstream of Sweetz_Eyez and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Fireworks Ink

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This groovy tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of EpicFireworks and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Hey folks, I've been really busy with the holidays, as everyone else has I imagine. Anyway, back to blogging now. Happy New Year!

Yule Sun

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This groovy sun tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Fabi Dorighello and is licensed under Creative Commons. It was inked by the fine folks at Dark Side Tattoo.

Kingfisher Ink

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These gorgeous Kingfishers come from the Flickrstream of Graeme Fraser and are licensed by Creative Commons.

In ancient Greece, the week before and the week after the winter solstice were peaceful days on the sea allowing the kingfisher to hatch her egg. As the Greek goddess Alcyone was represented by the kingfisher we now call these days the Halcyon Days. From Wikipedia:

The myth of Ceyx and Alcyone describes how Alcyone, as recorded by Ovid, pines all day by the shore where Ceyx was destined to return. Unfortunately Ceyx, who is referred to as the son of the morning star (a reference to the solstice, not anything satanic), has died in a shipwreck. Alcyone finds this out, and throws herself into the sea. The gods feel pity for Ceyx and Alcyone, transforming them into Halcyon Birds. The first Halcyon days were those days in winter, on which Alcyone first lay her eggs. Her father Aeolus, god of the wind, calms the seas each year since so she can lay them again.

These are considered days of peace and prosperity. I like to think of these days as a calming time before the insanity of the mainstream holidays kicks in.

Colorful Snowflakes

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These pretty snowflakes come from the Flickrstream of tattoo artist Shannon Archuleta who works out of San Francisco. Shannon's work has been featured previously several times on NeoPagan Ink. To see more of her work visit: Cat People Tarot, Mandala Back Piece and the Colorful Eastern Dragon.

Cornucopia Ink

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This gorgeous tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of my_new_wintercoat and is licensed under Creative Commons. (To see another cool tattoo from my_new_wintercoat, go here.)

This tattoo was inked by Mike at Black Cat Tattoo out of Boise, Idaho.

The word "cornucopia" means "the horn of plenty" and is most closely associated with the Greek goddess Copia, a goddess of prosperity and plenty, who carried it with her. She belongs in the posse of the goddess Fortune, goddess of fortune and luck. There are various versions of its origins. The most popular one states that the cornucopia was originally a goat's horn from which the god Zeus drank as a child. To protect him from his father Chronus, who was eating all of his children to prevent them from usurping him, Zeus was sent away to live in a cave. The story goes that either the goat herself tore off her horn to nourish the infant Zeus or that he, jerk that he could be, tore it from her head. Now, you might ask, how does a horn, from the head of animal, provide milk to feed a child? I don't know, I really don't, I just work here. To read more about the cornucopia visit The Flower Shop Network.

Snowflake

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This lovely snowflake comes from the Flickrstream of Augrust and is licensed under Creative Commons. This was created by the artists at Dejavu Tattoo Studio out of Chiangmai, Thailand.

Just a pretty little welcome to winter!

Sugar Skull

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Here's another tattoo, this time a sugar skull, from the Flickrstream of Opacity; it's licensed by Creative Commons.

Spider Fairy

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This ooky fairy comes from the Flickrstream of Opacity and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Just another dark goddess type to mark the season! I'm kinda thinkin' this might be based an original painting so if someone knows anything about it be sure to speak up.

Sad Zombie Lady

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This sad zombie lady comes from the Flickrstream of tattoo artist Trev Poulson who works out of Loyalty Tattoos of Clearfield, Utah and is licensed by Creative Commons. If Trev's work looks familiar that's because his work has been featured here before in the form of the gorgeous Headless Lady.

Jack Skellington Ink

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This killer Jack Skellington tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Vgsgeek and is licensed by Creative Commons.

For those of you who don't know, and I pity you, Jack Skellington is the big man about Halloween town in the film The Nightmare Before Christmas by that master of weirdness, Tim Burton. In it, Jack discovers Christmas town and wants to bring his own scary flair to the joyful holiday. He has good intentions but ends up scaring the holy hell out of people before being shot down and landing in a graveyard. I know he's probably a metaphor for something really deep but I just like him for his adorable creepiness.

The Fool and His Skeleton

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The tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Ste3ve and is licensed under Creative Commons. It was inked by Martin Roberson of Lucky Stars Tattoos, San Jose, California.

The card image comes from Wikimedia Commons and is a recolored version of the classic Rider Waite Smith Tarot card, the original images of which are now public domain.

The idea is an original concept of the owner that includes the normally fleshed Fool as a skeleton in honor of The Day of the Dead festival. The Fool is one of the trump cards that make up the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck. I think this is a fascinating reinterpretation of the Tarot and while The Day of the Dead, and Tarot, aren't strictly pagan I couldn't resist sharing this tattoo!

Bat in Flight

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Here's a nice bat from the Flickrstream of Earley Curley and is licensed under Creative Commons.

If you look closely you can just make out what appears to be two nipples, so, I don't know how accurate this is but it's neat all the same!

If Zombies Attack I'm Tripping You!

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Here's some wicked zombie ink from the Flickrstream of ChiBart; it's licensed under Creative Commons.

Halloween Kitty

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This cute scaredy cat comes from the Flickrstream of Neverfeltbetter and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Just one of many spooky themed tattoos to come!

By the way, I'm still hot on the pursuit for contributors so if you're interested let me know.

Headless Lady

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This cool tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Trev Poulson and is licensed under Creative Commons. Trev is a talented tattoo artist who works at Loyalty Tattoos and Piercing out of Clearfield, Utah.

Here's a nice dark goddess to brighten up, or darken down, your Samhain season. Don't know if this an original work by the tattoo artist or someone else. Either way, it's very nice. I like the contrasting use of color and black and gray. She's one hell of a sexy goddess.

Halloween Every Day

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This groovy tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Katie Cowden and is licensed under Creative Commons.

I know we're still two weeks 'til the actual day but I'm getting the Halloween/Samhain fever so here's the first tattoo celebrating my favorite season. If you haven't already done it this is your official NeoPagan Ink message to get out your pumpkin lights and skull candles.

Pomegranate

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This tattoo comes from the Flickrstream of Ragz1138 and is licensed under Creative Commons.

This tattoo was inked by Ragz Rejected of Katalist Konsepts out of Fort Collins, Colorado. (Also home to the beloved Mez Love whose work has been and will be featured here many times!)

30 September marks the ancient Roman holiday in which Meditrina, goddess of medicines, is given fruit offerings.

The pomegranate, however, is also a key element of the myth of Prosperpine (Roman) or Persephone (Greek) and the ancient explanation of the seasons. Persephone was the daughter of Zeus, chief of the Greek pantheon, and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. The story goes that while she was out gathering flowers in a field Hades, god of the underworld and one of her many admirers, caused the Earth to open up so that he could rise up and grab her. Her mother Demeter was in such distress after she went missing that she neglected her duties. The crops began to fail and the people began to starve. Eventually the other gods interceded and Hades promised to release Persephone but only after giving her a pomegranate. When she ate of the fruit it caused her to be forever tied to the Underworld which meant she had to stay there at least one third of the year. During this time her mother Demeter refused to let any plants grow which created the season of winter.