Ritualistic tattoos:
We are living in times where tattoos and body modification are more associated with fashion than related to the original idea of getting your body permanently marked for magic, spiritual or personal reasons.
Actually many believe that the first tattoos were created by accident. The most viable theory that I read was that some tribes used to treat open wounds by rubbing or patching them with some kind of herb or flower elixir, which probably produced some kind of ink. This ink while in touch with the cut created a permanent mark and at the same time due to the phototherapeutic use of it helped the wound to heal.
Even if the original meaning and origin of body modification is mostly lost along the history we know that thousands of years ago it was used in many different ways, mostly deriving from the human believes and creativity.
The little that we know about tattoo and corporal modification history allow us to say that they were sometimes used not only as part of healing or transition rituals. They were also used as identification between tribes, bravery and adulthood signs. Some warriors like the Vikings used to get their faced tattooed to frighten their rivals. Other tribes used to tattoo their female's faces to avoid them from being kidnapped or raped by enemies.
In other barbarian cultures, which became famous for their cruelty, before killing their tattooed prisoners the warriors were given the right to de-flash their prisoners and use the adorned skin as a protection charms. The same procedures interestingly enough were repeated during the WWII, but with non adorned skins. What says tons about development and modern civilization.
At this time tattoos, scarification and insertion of seeds and pits under human skin were well seen around the primitive world. Unfortunately in Persia, due to its non erasable character; Tattoos became a way of marking slaves. This idea somehow pleased the Greeks and the Romans which not only marked their slaves; they also tattooed thieves and outlaws.
The Greeks used to tattoo the word "stigma", on thieves; while the Romans developed a social hierarchical idea of tattoos. Each specific group received a standard and very visible sign. Gladiators, soldiers, prisoners and slaves were the first ones to carry those punitive permanent body markings; those later during the inquisition became known as "shame mark".
A few centuries after, the Romans already had developed their own tattoo technique. The tattoos then were divided in: Pride tattoos: Marks on soldiers accordingly with their units, those were usually done on the lower part of the arm. And humiliation marks, that were not only used on criminals they were also used on elite members that were imprisoned for different reasons; those prisoners received face marks according to their crime.
Permanent body marking was banished when Romans adopted Christianity. It forbade mutilation and marking of the human body and face following an Old Testament commandment: "You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any marks on yourselves: I am the LORD." "Leviticus 19:28".
This prohibition for obvious reasons did not last long. Any other kind of marking would be possible to remove without causing the person any collateral problem. So the Romans did not stop using tattoos on their soldiers, but they made them much less visible, this way trying to control the increasing number of deserters in their armies.
While the Mediterraneans were struggling with the laws of Christianity, the Saxons and Celts enjoyed having their body covered by permanent adornments. Many of those markings were symbols made in rituals to please the gods.
While Norse tribes tattoo symbols related to Odin and the Norse gods mostly for protection, the Celts used tattoos during rituals honoring and asking the gods for blessings such as fertility, better crops, and the gift of divination. Actually a common reason for females to get tattooed in many cultures was fertility. Some of the followers of Norse gods used to tattoo their inner thighs with symbols displaying a prayer for a pregnancy.
With the spreading of Christianity and the believe that body marking was a sin, tattoos together with pagan culture slowly started vanishing from western European culture. During the Inquisition Tattoos were seen as direct contact with the devil. Becoming even more unaccepted by the Catholic Church, that was threatened by the lost of followers and contributors to other religions.
Before this menace caused by the Catholic Church, mostly due to the fear of losing their sponsors than the devil himself, pagans used to have beautiful rituals to celebrate the body marking.
So this article is for you, which love the idea of tattooing something really cool but don't know exactly what this symbol means. What sometimes can be very disappointing and following some believes quite unwise. Once tattoos were considered marks for eternity and beyond.
Some tattoos can be also drawn using a combination of many symbols, creating what can be called a magic sigil. A magic sigil is a secret code that can be created only during a serious ritual made exclusively by you, and the meaning of it can never be revealed to any other person, since it is believed that in the moment that it gets into your skin it will became part of your soul.
So if you are not sure about the meaning of that great looking symbol, you better stick with flowers, skulls, guitars, etc...actually try to do a bit of research about the meaning of the flower that you chose, because most flowers do have meanings, pagans used to believe in the power of nature.
So in respect of those ancestors and the ones that suffered torture, discrimination or were humiliated because for their body markings, instead you jump into the first tattoo parlor and get a phoenix tattooed on your back, you should know and truly believe in what you are engraving on your skin, because following the believers it goes much deeper than that. Independently of the part of paganism followed; everything before the tattooing process was prepared to honor and please the gods, so usually those rituals were extremely beautiful, peaceful and empowering.
It is always good to remind yourself that symbols are interpretations of the absolute, therefore the position of them can mean a difference between your connection with the gods or an act of the rebellion against them; creating an entire opposite meaning.
In ancient times the drawings were chosen according to local believes or needs.
Unfortunately it would be impossible in an article to write about all the existing symbols, so I chose some basic symbols, some well known symbols and some examples of really beautiful alphabets that were used and that with good guidance still can be use in magic rituals.
The Earth: The downwards triangle was used to bring prosperity to all physical and material things.
The East: This symbol would give the person the power of divination and help him/her to communicate with spirits.
The fire: Brought purity to the soul burning the evil inside of the beholder and power to the worriers.
The water: it symbolized purity and the spiritual energy.
The Hexagram: was a combination of those symbols and the desire of men to control them all. It was not meant for a simple person; only the chosen ones such as the tribe wizard could wear such a powerful mark.
From the symbols above we get a small idea about the origin of what we nowadays call WICCAN Symbols.
The pentagram or pentacle is probably one of the most well know symbol connected with witchcraft. There are indications that before it was used during any ritual it was used by Pythagoras to represent the human body, head, arms and legs surrounded by a circle to represent the unification of it all with the spirit.
The pentagram also represents the PHI number, in other words the perfection that is given by the combination of the five elements (earth, fire, water, air and spirit). If you wonder the difference between the pentagram and the pentacle, the pentagram has no circle surrounding the five edges star, so it represents only the five elements. The pentagram due its common use on top of book of shadows became known as a sign of secrecy between witches and wizards.
The spirit circle: Represents the walking around something or someone to invoke protection from the five elements. All rituals, no matter what fraction of paganism you follow need to cast a circle and call the quarters to seal and protect that place in which the ritual will happen.
The triple circle: It was used as a female mark representing the triple goddess: Maiden, Mother and Crone, empowering the body the spirit and the mind.
The triple moon or the goddess: It represents the never ending cycle. Life, death, birth and evokes the female goddess that will be assigned to you for eternal connection and devotion.
The horned god: Represents the male deity, it combined with the triple circle brings balance to life because they are known as each other's opposite.
The Celtic cross: It is used to represent the Sun and the Moon, god and goddess and the male and the female in perfect harmony.
Many symbols used in alchemy can also be used as tattoos, because alchemy is known as the bridge between earth and heaven.
The main symbol of alchemy brings you the power of life changes and mind awareness.
The planets received the symbols of the gods that they represent. When you tattoo one of those symbols you are supposedly offering your life to the god or goddess that rules the image.
Eye of Horus: Is a protection symbol, it represents Horus, which lost his eye while fighting for revenge against Seth over the murder of his father Osiris.
The ankh: Represents immortality and fertility. It is often, as many of the Egyptian symbols, meant to be worn by females.
Hecate's Wheel: considered by many as the "dark" goddess, ruling over the underworld. So it is not really a good thing to have on your skin, actually mazes can many times mean mental confusion.
Triskele: Is the never ending symbol, represents life, death and rebirth.
The most common Norse symbols were the runes. They were not only used by the Norse people as letters they were also used as a divination methodology. Each rune has its own meaning and changing, turning them upside down or backwards can mean exactly the opposite that you wanted to do. The runes are believed to be so powerful that they have the power of transforming the simple act of writing in creating magic spells.
The ritual of combining runes and creating a drawing from them where the full image of the runes will be hidden inside form one of the most powerful forms of magic sigil.
This magic sigil used as tattoo must be placed in an almost invisible place, it belongs to you and no one else should see them, you also should never reveal to others what they mean, so if you plan on tattooing a magic sigil you better do like the many witches that survived the inquisition did. The inner thigh tattoo, the vaginal tattoo and inside the mouth tattoo were not uncommon. Many also chose head tattoos, but it was not really a good way of hiding it from the inquisitors, since lice infestations often resulted in their heads to be shaved.
The Borromean triangles and the trefoil knot: those symbols are related to Odin. They should be used only to mark the bravest of the warriors, this sign was left on their dead bodies by Odin, that used it as a mark for the Valkyries to collect the chosen ones to transport go to Valhalla.
Helm of Awe: It was commonly tattooed by early Vikings between their eyes as a symbol of protection.
Thor's hammer (Mjolnir): More than protection it means devotion to the god Thor that was its owner, Thor supposedly would protect those who worn this symbol.
The Enochian alphabet, or the angelic alphabet, is not as old as many people think, however people don't think it has less power than ancient scripts. In the middle of the 1500th century it was said to be sent by angels to the British court astrologer and magician, John Dee. It was used as a way to communicate with all types of angels, superior and inferior. Nowadays the Enochian alphabet has lost the connection with white magic and is mostly used in rituals of black magic and contact with demons and cacodemons. So the best idea is to keep a distance to those symbols or images, most of the time they are already pre-made magic sigils, which look like or have the same kind of curves as the alphabet in the chart bellow.
Abjads, are nothing else than alphabets, unfortunately most of the languages that used those letters are dead. But some are still alive, such as Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic and these are extensively used in studying magic and the search for ancient knowledge. The other alphabets that we can call Abjads are aesthetically very beautiful, but if the idea is to write a name or a phrase with them I would once more suggest looking for some guidance.
There are many people that devote their lives studying these alphabets and languages. And for more than I can try to describe to you how to make your own sigils and promote the ideal atmosphere to get a magic tattoo nothing really compares to a few years of serious studies and deep guidance from a high priest or high priestess.
All written above is no more than a small introduction to the history of tattoos and an idea about some symbols, alphabets their meanings, before you get anything tattooed you should definitely do a very deep research about the meaning of the image that you want to add to your skin. Tattoos are much more than fashion or a fun thing to do on a boring day.
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