Ancient Art Tattoo

I knew that I wanted to get an ancient art tattoo since I was 5. I think it started with some sort of B flick with a character covered in tribal tattoo design. The hero was one of those really over-muscled action stars worshiped by hyperactive boys everywhere. His ancient art tattoos seemed to signify his barbarian wisdom and his fierce temperament. I wanted to be big and tough one day, and to do that I knew that I would have to get tattoos in that style.

Of course as I grew up, my appreciation of what an ancient art tattoo was developed further. I actually studied Stone Age art quite a bit in my adolescence and the beginning of my college years. I looked at many petroglyphs, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and other ancient art designs. I wanted to know as much as I could about the simple primitive drawings of our forefathers. The more I studied them, the more I liked them. They had an elegance and and a lack of self-consciousness which is missing from modern art. An ancient art tattoo is simple, elegant, and direct.

That doesn't mean that ancient Art tattoos are necessarily primitive or excessively simplistic. Many ancient designs are actually very complicated and geometrical. Celtic tattoos in particular can involve complex interlocking designs and webs of shapes. Tattoo designs inspired by mosaics also can get very elaborate and beautiful. I've known some people who have even gotten whole lines of hieroglyphics, replicating ancient Egyptian prayers on their bodies for the sake of ornamentation. With an ancient art tattoo, the only limit is your imagination.

In my case, I was much more interested in simplistic ancient art tattoos than the complex, geometric shapes that I had seen some of my friends get. I wanted an ancient tattoo with a hunting scene, or perhaps a Stone Age design for life or wisdom. I finally found the design I likes When I was taking a tour of French petroglyphs with an archaeologist. It was this beautiful drawing of a woman, looking extremely curvy and fertile in the way that only the Stone Age Imagination can conjure. I thought that it was one of the most beautiful designs I had ever seen.

As time went by, I got many different ancient art tattoos on my body. I got an Eye of Horus tattoo that I'm particularly proud of on the inside of my wrist, and a very simple spiral tattoo on my forearm. I have kept the designs as simple as possible the whole time so as to preserve the innocence and directness of an authentic ancient art tattoo. I would rather get more tattoos over time then get a few really complicated ones anyway.