|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
The Thyrsos and the Serpent
Vintage: 2003
|
|
Lysiodôros
|
|
This first design is mine. Yes, I got a tattoo for the first time at age 47. But it pleases Dionysos, and it pleases me. One day I just woke up and knew it was time to get some God-Ink. Certainly I was inspired by the local Mænads, several of whom acquired beautiful and powerful Bakchic skin art a few years ago. I spent a while working out the design, had a coloring night with a couple of the ’Nads (when we dragged out the wine and art supplies and tried different color combinations on a bunch of xeroxes of our respective tattoo line-art), and then had it inked for the Equinox by Amy Cole at TigerLily.
It took about an hour and a half under the art needle, during which I alternated between sessions of Dionysiac meditation, brief bouts of trying to fully experience the sensations of being tattooed, briefer bouts of trying not to fully experience the sensations of being tattooed, brief flurries of Q-&-A smalltalk about the nature of life as a tattoo artist, and stretches of neutral fugue-state watching the Dia de los Muertos winged skeleton Amy had suspended from the ceiling circling lazily in a holding pattern (waiting, I presumed, for a runway assignment from the tower at Aeropuerto de los Muertos).
My Godmark is a bit less than seven inches tall. Its design of the Thyrsos and the Serpent reflects the rather overtly Tantric energy that Dionysos has been expressing to and through me. It also represents that I am a Hermetic Qabalist as well as a Dionysiast, as the Talismanic Image is influenced in its design by the Qabalistic images of the Serpent of Wisdom on the Tree of Life, and Nechushtan, the Brazen Serpent.
The red and green of the serpent’s stripes are complementary colors, and represent the dynamic equilibrium of (seeming) opposites and paradoxes reconciled in Him.
The green sigil at the lower right is my Lysiodoros monogram. It's a Lambda with a Delta inside. It can be read two ways. In one reading, the Delta is Dôron, “Gift,” which is my life as a Bakchos, embraced by the Lambda of Lysios. Also, inversely, the Lambda is Lysiodôros, and the Delta is Dionysos within me when I am blessed by being entheos.
—Lysiodôros
Oregon |
|
|
 |
|
|
The Serpent and the Vine
Vintage: 1999?, enhanced and extended 2003 |
| Klea |
|
I was first marked as one of the rituals of our maenadic thiasos, Meliophis, the Honeyed Serpents or Sweet Serpents. We each decided to do a snake and an ivy leaf...in whatever configuration the individual maenad preferred. Mine was (at first) a single large leaf with a Greek-vase-style serpent.
What you see here is Round Two...I added more vine to make a total of 9 leaves (one of His sacred numbers) and added an inscription, in Greek, which reads "To Dionysos." The irregular style of the lettering is inspired by Greek vase inscriptions.
The tattoo is on my left outside ankle.
To His Wilding Vines,
—Klea
Oregon |
|
|
|
|
|
Oenochoe’s Ankle Tat
Vintage: 1999 |
| Oenochoe |
|
This was my first tattoo ever, I got it done on June 4 (which is the festival of the Slavic Yarilo, a Dionysian counterpart), 1999. I drew it myself—just ivy curling around my ankle and up my leg, and spelling out my maenadic name in Greek. I plan to get at least one more tattoo for Dionysos in the future.
—Oenochoe
Maine |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For comments, questions, or suggestions
regarding the Dionysion Website, send e-mail
(with a subject line of “Dionysion WWW”)
to lysiodoros@hermeticfellowship.org.
If you have enjoyed this site, don’t forget to bookmark it
in your browser or add it to the Hot Links at your website.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
