Aesthetics can often play a large part in the appreciation of a mod. Not always mind you, but often enough that it’s fair to say that it is quite commonplace.
The beauty of an aesthetic judgment is that it is subject to personal interpretation. For example one person may love the look of multiple facial piercings, while another may not. There is no right or wrong answer in this situation because human beings, as individuals aren’t locked into a single mindset as to what is pleasing to the eye. Obviously in the case of animals, mate selection is a primary motivation, and many species have adapted/evolved to the point where mate selection comes down to which potential mate displays the proper requires traits the best.
Now I realize that a lot of this is pretty common knowledge, and I do have a reason for bringing all this up. The Flower of Life is a geometric figure that has been linked to almost every culture ever known to man. For different people, the image means different things, but most recognize the inherent power of the symbol. One variation of the Flower of Life is that of Metatron’s Cube. The cube is thought to be a visual representation of the basic building blocks of the universe, right down to a single atom. So it was no wonder that while I was browsing the BME galleries my eye was drawn to this tattoo uploaded by Atrocity Exhibition.
If you look closely, you can see that not only is the image painstakingly geometric, but the spaces between the lines are filled in not with a solid color, but with very small black dots. This symbol, combined with the flower atop it, really stood out to me as one of the finest examples of blackwork I’ve seen in a very long time.
The picture was taken the day after it was done, and I’m really curious as to see how it will look when it’s fully healed.
Comments
12 responses to “The Flower of Life”
that is a mind-blowingly beautiful tattoo!
geometria rifa
Wow…that must have taken such a long time, but so worth it. Also, I’m intrigued by the heavily inked arm.
It took an hour for us to do my wrist and hand in dotwork, so I can’t even imagine the amount of time put into this piece. It definitely pays off, however. This is so beautiful!
The whole piece was completed in 9 hours over two sittings (one in the Amsterdam Tattoo Convention 2010 and the other in Kings Cross Tattoo Parlour, London). Patrick is an amazing artist, highly recommended 🙂
I should have a fully healed picture up soon!
Speechless. Amazing.
fuck yes. this is gorgeous
it looks like an origami folding pattern, i’m half tempted to see if it makes anything if you fold it up lol.
Well crap, its a gorgeous tattoo, I had been hoping to get a metatrons cube but now I’d feel kinda sily being I saw someoneelse get it first =/
Still though, very beautiful tattoo!
I actually said “wow” out loud when I saw it.
Amazing, the world need more ink like this.
And they called it… “Stippling.”