Thursday, July 29, 2010



Karla was the first femme to agree to my project so I am happy to make my first official post about her beautiful tattoos!
Karla is 46 and from Albuquerque, NM and she works as a massage therapist. She has four tattoo so far.

The first one she sent me was one her left arm of an Angel. She got this done by Richie Castillo of Time Bomb Tattoo in San Antonio, Texas

The tattoo symbolizes protection, an Angel on her shoulder always looking after her. The Angel is surrounded by a stone window , a take on Angel in the Architecture, which is a line from a Paul Simon song. In her own words "to me it means the sacred that is in the everyday - the mystic that is in the material..."The rainbow wings represent several things, an energetic and sacred meaning as well as Gay Pride.

Angels have half always been great representations of protection and has been seen in religions other than Christianity. All together, it is a very powerful tattoo with several meanings, one that you can look at and just be in total awe because there is just so much symbolism.

This next one is on Karla's right arm. The theme is totems and magic symbols including, two different styled dragonflies, a lotus blossom, a third eye symbol, and a henna hand. This tattoo was also done by Richie Castillo and was done all freehand except for one of the tribal dragonfly.
in the process and this next one is the 6th session of the tattoo

This next one is one that she has on her left forearm. It is of the Hamsa hand, a symbol of protection against evil and the sixth senses. The hand is the hand of Fatima, daughter of the prophet Muhammad. It is mostly seen as jewelery or wall hangings at home, as defense against the evil eye.This hand is found in many cultures, in Israeli, Arabic, and in the Bible.



Spiritual tattoos are not uncommon, many people get them. I have seen people get spiritual ink to pay homage to someone they loved that had spiritual beliefs and so, one doesn't have to be spiritual themselves to appreciate such tattoos or symbolism. Whether it be a symbol of your faith, homages to loved ones, or an Angel of protection, they are all powerful and beautiful tattoos.



4 comments:

  1. I'm here from LJ, at literarytattoos, and I really liked this entry. It's looking good! I'm looking forward to reading more!

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  2. Also here from LJ, and I think I'll be checking this out regularly - it looks really interesting. I like the background on the meanings behind the tattoos. :)

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  3. Karla has some amazing tattoos and tattooist friends! I am a friend of hers from LiveJournal. She is probably one of the people that I admired that made me want tattoos more and more.

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