The magic of tattoos

One morning a few years ago, I went to the tattoo shop together with István. A guy with luminous eyes was waiting for him. There was a Guns ’n’ Roses concert the day before. He ferreted out the musician at the hotel where Slash gave him a signature on his arm. He wanted to make this signature eternal. There is no excuse in cases like that. The guy had a lifelong experience and he wanted to have it forever. I heard István saying a definite „no” dozen’s and dozen’ of time. You should not continue this profession without conviction. The sign being tattooed on the body always has a symbolic meaning affecting the person’s fate. It is might be fun to tattoo skulls, hanged man or bleeding bodies at the age of twenty. On the other hand various religious emblems and „fearsome” creatures, like dragons and demons etc. becoming alive on the basis of the folklore heritage, symbolize strength and courage. Therefore we cannot put an equal sign between the above mentioned emblems and the naturalistic depiction of violence. We should not burden our good fortune with bad things in vein. Everyone has silly thoughts but the clever one does not emphasize them. I would like to thank for Téglás István, the Lead Artist of Tüskevár Tattoo Art in Budapest, for providing the enclosed illustrations for this article. His further works are available on http://tuskevartattooart.blogspot.com/