Tattooing Masonic symbols and ethics

[Nate Pea]

starting out i had two bosses. one was from the tail end of the black tshirt crowd and one was pure old school. the more modern bloke was full of advice about 'the tattooers duty' etc.... and refused to tattoo partners names or football badges etc....and the old school dude said in the early shops he worked in in the late 70's if you had a £5 note and wanted a tattoo you were leaving the shop minus a fiver but a tattoo to the good. this actually matches my early experience of tattoo parlours in the early eighties. i know for a fact that the old school dude tattooed a full nazi back piece (something i would never do) and never gave it a second thought (i may do another thread on the story attached to that!). anyway, this brings me to my current dilemma. i have noticed over the past ten year or maybe a bit longer that masonic imagery is exploding all over the industry. all seeing eyes, burning torches and owls sitting on skulls being the most obvious. my objection would be that invariably the bearers have little understanding of the imagery they are asking for. like.....i wouldnt tattoo a nazi swastika on anybody but it would an especially dick move to tattoo one on somebody who had no idea of what the nazi party even stood for or that it existed. most days i think i should probably just hammer that fucker in and move on to the next one and im probably just being a dick but?.........anyway......

[cltattooing]

I think about this stuff too. Just use your best judgement and don't compromise your beliefs for money. If you're not going to lose sleep over it, go nuts.

[Hogrider]

I would suspect that people get imagery tattooed on themselves all the time that they don't have a full understanding of. Unless the image bothered me I wouldn't have a problem with it.

[Colored Guy]

For an example of a Mason tattoo... if you were a Mason, you'd probably never get one. And if you're a not a Mason, you shouldn't get one. Of course things can have many different meanings to different people.

Look at how many people wear Von Dutch hats and shirts (not so much any more..) and have no clue who he was.

I have seen Nazi tattoos on people (definitely not Masons..) that were obviously prison mementos, in there they had a profound meaning and were part of what kept them alive during their stay. Not something to be taken lightly, as the wearer of the art and those who view it.

[Cork]

Just use your best judgement and don't compromise your beliefs for money. If you're not going to lose sleep over it, go nuts.

In business and in life.

[pidjones]

So many symbols are common among various religions, cultures, tribes, organizations but mean completely different things. Should someone from one group be denied use of a symbol because it is also used by another group? The "swastika" is used in India as a religious and political party emblem with no connection to the nazis. Various Masonic emblems are incorporated into US symbology. Rainbows are used for "pride" symbols, but also are heavily used in Hawaiian tourism and many other things totally unrelated. Don't get too tied up in the sybology (but, use your head - no star of Davids on a Muslim). No one really "owns" the symbols other than that covered by copyrite laws.

[blujax01]

...masonic imagery is exploding all over the industry. all seeing eyes, burning torches and owls sitting on skulls being the most obvious. ...

I had no idea that these were Masonic symbols and my father was a Mason his entire adult life. When I think Masons, I think of the builder's square and compass thingy that forms a diamond shape and has a "G" in the middle.

I learned something new today, Thanks.

[Gloomy Inks]

I learned something here too! I don`t have too much to add really. I. honestly think that certain symbols, swastikas being ine, only truly look good on someone`s back side. Speaking of Masons though, Stoney St Clair, Sailor Jerry, Milton Zeis, Apache Harry, all Masons.

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