Father and Son Clan Campbell Badge Tattoos

What better father-son bonding experience could there be than getting tattooed together? Today I had the pleasure of embellishing two of my clansmen, members of my own Clan Campbell, with our mighty boar and motto. We chose to place a Celtic circle behind the clan badge as a way to extend it to fill the upper arm. Dad went first, with the boar looking back to his heritage, and a crimson background. Son chose to have his boar facing forward, to his long life ahead, and a blue-green background. This way they are the same, but different; a set, but not identical.

Father and Son Clan Campbell Badge Tattoos by Pat Fish

See more heraldic tattoos on the Heraldry Portfolio Page.

Hamilton Clan Badge Tattoo

The fortunate Scots have a lovely form of tribal identification in the Clan Badge. Specific to the Scottish clan system, the belt represents fealty to a Laird. Each clan has specific heraldic symbols inside their belt. The Hamiltons are traditionally sawyers, harvesters of forests, so for this custom version of their badge we chose a crown, a symbolic oak tree made of a few stylized leaves and acorns, and a two-man saw slicing into the trunk. I take pride in being able to do research both in my own archives and online, to make accurate and unique designs that are correct to the heraldic standards. This is true tribal art.

Hamilton Clan Badge Tattoo by Pat Fish

Celtic Shielding Cross Tattoo

Todays client requested a Celtic Cross tattooed on the front of his shin to shield him as he walked forward in life. He liked the "tribal" look of spiky shapes, but is Irish and so wanted knotwork interlace. That required some custom fabrication. The photo is a combination of the first step, lines and shading, looking very stark against his skin, and then the final result with a pinstripe of light green on the sides of a deeper green center. 

Celtic Shielding Cross Tattoo by Pat Fish

'Pictish Warrior' Spirals Tattoo

This Nurse Practitioner is a Warrior Queen! We installed the pattern of single, double and triple spirals as a wrap that spanned around her arm and up onto her back, giving it lots of kinetic movement. I think the Picts painting themselves with woad for battle would have approved of this!

'Pictish Warrior' Spirals Tattoo ny Pat FIsh

A perfect way to add large area coverage in color. While we cannot know exactly what tattoos the woad warriors would have worn, we can surmise that they would have copied the spirals found on contemporary stone carvings, all that we now have left to document the mysterious race of the Picts.