Calyxa's Tattoo Gallery

Calyxa's Current Tattoos


Dragonfly
This was my first tattoo. As with most tattoos, details of the design have special meaning. That's why the body of the dragonfly looks a little strange, it incorporates an egyptian heiroglyph. An interesting note about this image was that I made it by placing my thigh on the bed of my scanner. The position was described as "yogic".

The design of my second tattoo is taken from the Winged Disk symbol, the solar disk with wings. The ancient Egyptians saw the Sun as the symbol both of light and enlightenment, and when combined with the wings the implication was of spiritual achievment through practical realization.

This image is a video capture. Due to the close-up, there's a lot of foreshortening going on here. My tattoo of the Winged Disk wraps all the way around my ankle with the disk of the sun in the front.

On the back between the wingtops are three heiroglyphs. They stand for Life, Strength and Health (in that order), as translated by E. Wallis Budge.

I've got a new tattoo, but haven't put it here, been too busy for that.

Future Tattoo Ideas

That ankle was fairly hard to deal with, so I'm not in any real hurry to get new ink. When I do, though, it'll probably be one of these three ideas.

Bennu Bird

The Bennu Bird is the ancient egyptian equivalent of the Phoenix. As a tattoo, I'd try to work this in on my left thigh to make a water scene along with the dragonfly.

I've also considered the possibility of going for full coverage over time, many small vignettes in ancient egyptian styling, and then fill in the background with column after column of heiroglyphs.

Lotus-Papyrus Mandala

I drew this mandala using designs based on ancient egyptian drawings of flowers. The flowers are the Lotus (the big spikey ones) and Papyrus reeds (the thistle-like ones).

As a tattoo, I'd position it on my right shoulder.

A note to fellow webspinners -- this was my first transparent gif!

The Cat, The Snake, The Tree


I'd made a sketch of the cat and the snake based on this pictorial from the ancient egyptian Book of the Dead as a possible tattoo idea. The more examples of the vignette I saw, the more I noticed the tree, so I decided to read more about it. I found that the tree appears to have some significance.
	"Ani identifies the Cat, symbolic of Re, next to the persea tree, who is in the act of slaying the serpent of darkness, Apophis."
As a tattoo, I've considered either somewhere on my upper back, or perhaps at the top of an arm. I may be too mundane for that, though.