INKEDblog takes you beneath the skin of today's tattoo culture. Our mission is to celebrate tattooing as a modern art form which incorporates art, fashion, style, and pop culture. While paying homage and respect to the past, we look to present a contemporary take on the present and future of skin art. getinked@inkedblog.com

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Wednesday  May 31, 2006

EveryBODY has a Story: Ancestor Tattoo

"I travel around the country a lot both for my work as a tattoo artist and writer, and for my partner Tom Spanbauer’s work as a writer. I go to San Francisco fairly regularly to do work for some long-term tattoo clients and friends I have made.

Last January, I was down there and I decided to get this tattoo. In a way, it was spontaneous, I hadn’t decided to get this tattoo before I came out, but the actual image has deep significance for me.

I got this work done by Jason Donahue at Cold Steele, and we worked out the design together during a two-week period. I love the way it turned out. I call it my ancestor tattoo because the image is based on Tahitian images of gilded authentic skulls that were used in ancestor worship.

I am part of a prolific pagan community, and one of the important roles that I play is that I am the keeper of the ancestor altar. This is an idea I had that began about two years ago. I actually traded some tattoo work for the actual altar, and it is amazing. It is an enormous wooden structure full of drawers and ornamentation and secret compartments. It’s beautiful.

Many of my friends store the ashes of their friends and relatives within the altar. Some leave them for a long time, others, just for a while. When I decided to get this tattoo, one of the most important things for me was that it not be about me, per se. I wanted an image that was more about my community and our conjoined history than My image on My arm.

It took the full two weeks to get it right, but it is a continuation of my ideals within my pagan community. To see images of my work and more about my history, please see sage-ink.com.

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