| tribal, celtic tatoos |
Question:
Please help me as I am thinking of having a tribal or celtic tatoo
done on the top of my arm and I have not seen very many ideas. Has anyone got any designs or pictures or know of a website that I could find pictures or
designs mainly for arm tatoos especially celtic or tribal bands ?
Answer:
-The definitive book on Celtic artwork is "Celtic Art : The Methods of
Construction" by George Bain at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486229238/qid=1005508518/sr=1..
.
sr_1_27_1/103-2612722-4896635
although his son's book
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0806986387/qid=1005508518/sr=1...
sr_1_27_2/103-2612722-4896635 also looks quite illuminating (see if you can
spot the pun).
It's worth bearing in mind that the Celts did not, as far as I'm aware,
tattoo these designs and the style of knotwork reached its apex when monks
used it for the illumination of religious manuscripts. It became a very
complicated form - examples exist in the Book of Kells with over 100 knots in
a square inch - and perfection was demanded for the glorification of God
(draw your Zen parallels here). Celtic art is really different to tribal
(reference NZ Maori, Polynesian, & Sth Pacific designs) & modern
pseudo^h^h^h^h^h^h neo-tribal styles, which you may wish to research
further.
http://www.bmezine.com/glossary/
&
http://bmezine.com/tattoo/netrib1.html
are good places to start
-The best place to look would really be a tattoo studion. Designs like
this are very common indeed, and any good studio will have books and
you can borrow or buy book from that.
-I've used both, and I strongly recommend the Iain Bain book (the second
one of the two URLs above) if, like me, you're *not* an artist. As an
engineer, rather than an artist, he simplified & systematized his
father's methods. Step by step ach design is presented, and once you've
mastered the techniques (after drawing maybe two or three of the
designs) it's quite easy to devise your own variants.
The George Bain book is still worth having as reference material, as he
gives a lot more designs and includes stuff like zoomorphics etc - the
Iain Bain one is just knotwork.
-Searcho on http://www.google.com/ and type the keyword tribal celtic tattoo band (or something)
As Smeg's suggestions, go and have a look at your tattooist's
library or portfolios.
Hint: You shouldn't feel that the only time you can walk
into a studio is when you go get tattooed. I regularly pop into mine just
to say hello and to sound them out on ideas.
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