Dance of Death

Skull Moon; Nadine Morris 2010
www.Atattooedtattoo.com

I want to know what a tattoo is!  Don't you?  I mean, really, what is it?  Why get one?  Is it worth it?  What IS a tattoo?  That's the reason I began this journey.  To answer that exact question.  I quickly realized it was no simple question to answer.  It would take a deeper study.

I concluded there to be three important variables; the type of person willing to receive a tattoo, the source of inspiration for the tattoo and the significant meaning behind getting/having the tattoo.  While I can hypothesis over the type of individual willing to receive a tattoo, do to growing mainstream acceptance of the tattoo and body arts, I must first discover WHY the individual receives the tattoo.

Rhiana 'Remy' Malay
Los Angeles, CA

"I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge.  It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason.  It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom." - Edgar Allan Poe *(1) 

Sugar Skull; Nadine Morris 2010
www.Atattooedtattoo.com

With fall, October and consequently Halloween quickly approaching I've begun my study on macabre tattoos.  Many correlations between macabre historical origin and Hispanic or Judeo-Christian influence have been drawn over the years.  However, there is minimal evidence to relate it directly to either.  The Hispanic-Catholic holiday 'Day of the Dead' or 'All Souls and All Saints Day' as well as the Mexican Sugar Skull art style are, by definition, forms of macabre but are unlikely the origins.  *(2)

ma•ca•bre [muh-kah-bruh, -kahb, -kah-ber]
adjective
1.  gruesome and horrifying; ghastly; horrible.
2.  of, pertaining to, dealing with, or representing death, especially its grimmer or uglier aspect.
3.  of or suggestive of the allegorical dance of death.  *(7)

The earliest historical reference to macabre art currently recognized is a painting known as 'Cimetière des Saints-Innocents' or Saints Innocents Cemetery, painted in France, toward the end of the 19th century.   During its years of service, the site was a mass burial plot in France known as Champeaux.  These mass burial sites were common in early French culture; often containing 1500 bodies per grave.  Once full, towns would often build walls around the cemetery and continue stacking additional corpses until major health concerns arouse amongst the varying towns.  The bodies were exhumed and transported to catacombs.  *(3)

Saints Innocents Cemetery; Hoffbauer.

The town economies may have suffered as the wealthy land owners made profit from burial site fees.  The mass graves created unique conditions, delaying decomposition and creating a surplus resource of fat.  Some believe the fat was collected and converted to soap after the bodies were moved.  *(3)  The willingness of the artist to focus on the subject of death directly reveals the cultural infatuation with the process of death and the fragility of life.  It is also believed, due to the popularity of this particular cemetery, an unknown artist of the time painted a mural on the wall known as 'Danse Macabre' or Dance of the Dead.  *(4)

Tattoo (Totentanz); Markus Willeke 2007
acrylic on canvas, 220 x 220 cm

Dance of the Dead, also known as: "Danza de la Muerta (Spanish),... Danza Macabra (Italian), Dança da Morte (Portuguese), Totentanz (German), Dodendans (Dutch)..." *(5) is actually a particular depiction of life.  It often contains multiple skeletons arranged to 'appear' dancing over a grave.  The subject in the grave varies but the dancing skeletons often represent religious, political or social figures of the time.  Another variation may contain 'stages of one's life' on the way to the grave.  Both versions of the 'Dance of Death' are intended to remind the viewer of how brief and vain life is.  They were often used in conjunction with sermons of the time.  *(5, 6)

For anyone willing to appreciate the beauty hidden within the grim and ghastly nature of macabre art and tattoos, they'll find a reminder of the true value of life.  Whether it contains skeletons, the reaper, a religious reference or some other correlation to death, they will hear the voices and inspirations of our ancestors crying out to live our lives, not just wait around to die.  For those that wear the tattoos, it is as if they stare death itself in the eyes and never back down.  

Nurse; "Meaning of Life" tattoo:  Nadine Morris 2010
www.Atattooedtattoo.com

As always, a huge thank you goes out to my dear friends at Atattooed Tattoo (in Westerville, OH:  www.atattooedtattoo.com) for sponsoring this creative endeavor in finding the meaning behind our colorfully inked skin.  Be sure to follow this blog via www.facebook.com/atattooedtattoo


Sources:
*(1) http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4624490.Edgar_Allan_Poe 
*(2) http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/support/dodhistory.html
*(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_Innocents_Cemetery
*(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saints_Innocents_1550_Hoffbauer.jpg
*(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre
*(6) Sophie Oosterwijk (20040, 'Of corpses, constables and kings: the Danse Macabre in late-medieval and renaissance culture'.  The Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 157, 61-90. 
*(7) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/macabre

Never Forget!

Eleven years ago today, I stood in front of my manager explaining the brace on my arm from a mountain biking accident and why that was not going to allow me to earn my paycheck that day. It was difficult getting his attention as it was fixated on the television behind me. When I turned around I heard a fellow waiter yell "Oh my God, what was that?" As I stared at the television I watched a second plane crash into the remaining World Trade Center Tower. My brain unwilling to accept the image before me.

Eleven years later I find myself reflecting over where I've been and how blessed I am to still be alive. I was no where near any of the needless violence that day but as I look back I am reminded of how fragile life is; how short of a time we all have. I find myself looking down at the inked tattoo design on my arm and wonder what it really means to me, since one day it will be nothing but ash and dust.

It is then that I realized it takes a certain kind of person to receive a tattoo, or any body modification for that matter. It takes a warrior; an individual who resists social conformity and stands for liberty. It takes an individual capable of standing alone; willing to lay down their life for their beliefs. It takes a person who wants to remember the past pleasures and pains so they may grow and never forget.

Even with the rise in popularity of tattoos, it is still the counter culture brother and sisterhood of the modern day warrior. I hope you will join my in-depth journey as we discover together, over the next several months, what tattoos mean to us, what they say about where we have been and what they can tell us about where we need to go. More so, I hope you take a moment today to remember the pain from our past so that we may never forget but also, that we may grow.

(Tattoo images from various internet resources, via Google Image)