In the 90s Celtic tattoos were fairly widespread, more in the rest of Europe than in Italy, where tattoos were still pretty small, which is why I never got the chance to tattoo one, although I would have liked to.
After 20 years the opportunity to tattoo one finally presented itself.
The client wanted two wolves in his tattoo, as a reminder of an ancient Cherokee Indian legend that had particularly impressed him.
The story of the two wolves
An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life.
“A fight is going on inside me,” he told the young boy, “a fight between two wolves.
One is evil, full of anger, sorrow, regret, greed, self-pity and false pride.
The other is good, full of joy, peace, love, humility, kindness and faith.”
“This same fight is going on inside of you, grandson…and inside of every other person on the face of this earth.”
The grandson ponders this for a moment and then asks, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?”
The old man smiled and simply said, “The one you feed.”
In addition to the two wolves he wanted something that had something to do with the cycle of life, where the battle between good and evil obviously plays a fundamental role, at least according to human beliefs.
He had seen a vaguely Celtic design that included two wolves and a symbol at the center that he wanted to develop from the center of his chest to the center of his back by placing the central symbol on his shoulder.
Copying someone else’s design is ethically wrong, so I completely reworked the idea, giving the work a three-dimensional look, as if it were carved. At the center I inserted a Triskell, symbol to which I dedicated the book of the same name in 1998 and which fully encapsulates the cycle of life and other symbolic meanings.
In the end I managed to do something I wanted to do about 20 years ago and definitely better than I would have done then 😀
As Richard Bach wrote:
You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however.
Below you can see the healed tattoo after approx. one month.