Monstrosities of the dark realms

When total darkness falls on Midgard...
Here we see scenes from Ragnarök, the end of the worlds. On top Odin is depicted in the moment of his death, getting eaten by Fenriz, the giant wolf. The black ship symbolizes Naglfar, the ship of the doomed, made from the fingernails of the dead. The bird symbolizes the rooster Fjalar " The one who knows everything" who warns the giants, that the final battle has started.

Vestfold viking style tattoo

Here you see a ttattoo, wich is consequently based on viking artefacts found in southeast Norway, county Vestfold.
Two famous findings, the Oseberg queen grave and the Gokstad ship burial inspired the bearer, wich was born in Vestfold to this armpiece.

Additions

Like most of the work I do, also this piece has a background story, among other things stands every dragon head in the pattern for one of the kids of the bearer and on the left arm you see Ullr, the god of winter and hunting...

Midgardsormen

Here we see another version of Jörmungand, the snake that surrounds the earth according to northern mythology.
Like Ouroboros the snake eats itself and forms the everlasting circle of recreation.

Vendel Age Birds Tattoo

Typical birds from the Vendel age (550-793, actually pre-viking age), freshly designed by me along the traditional styles.
Birds like that are found all over Europe, like in Sutton Hoo, Välsgarde and off course the overwhelming Staffordshire hoard.

Urnes tattoo

This tattoo is based strictly on the ornaments, one can find at the stave church of Urnes, Norway, wich was built around1130 and is probably the oldest stavechurch on norvegian ground.

Detail of the church, showing the intertwining, gripping and biting dragons.

Jelling style tattoo

Entirely handmade tattoo, inspired by a design on a little silver cup, found in the grave of Gorm den gamle, last pagan king of Denmark.

Man on a quest

Here we have another man on a quest, that travelled all the way from the north of sweden to get the wished symbols on his skin.

What we see here is the tree of life with Hugin and Munin woven in the so called Vendel style in the branches, the leaves are in speartip shape, a hommage to the highest god, Odin.

Furthermore is Lokis mask in the trunk, the bearer named his first son Loki.

In the roots we see the three Nornes, Urd, Verdandi and Skuld, depicted in the Oseberg style or Gripping Beast style.

The whole design has the shape of a Thors Hammer.

Vidar Tattoo part two

Vidar Tattoo

A thug ride: Sometimes one has to go a long way to get what one wants....The Tattoo depicts Vidar, Odin´s son, killing Fenriz in an act of revenge after the wolf ate his father in the final big battle Ragnarøk.
The two birds on the forearm symbolize Hugin and Munin.
The sleeve was done in one big session, that took four days.
I always apprechiate it a lot, when my customers go and see a professional photographer, cause the picture is the only thing, that remains for me when the inking is done...

The wheel and the runes symbolize the man s closest family, one rune for every member.......

Some Jorvik works

 A celtic lion.....

 The oldest person (so far) I ever tattooed.........

 a Lurcher.......

 the symbol of ultimate strenght (Thanx to Marcus for assisting designing n thanx for lining up, Adam!)

....and the best things in life are simple.....:)

Cheers and greetings to the Uk and Ireland! It s always a pleasure to see you guys, good time is always too short and to say goodbye to a friend hurts more than a swordwound........

The end of the story: Odin gets eaten by the wolf, there's no hope, no future, when the king of all gods dies, what you gonna do then, eh?

We' re all f...ed in the end, that s it..............

Surtur, the giant King of fire.

Surtur on the "Volcano-man", a very faithful customer to our studio.

Surtur is the king of Muspelheim, the home of fire in the nordic mythological universe. He is the biggest enemy of the Aesir Gods, with his flaming sword Surtalogi he cuts the rainbowbridge, that leads to the realms of Asgard and kills the unarmed god Frey, the god of fertility and joy.

Keep it real

This piece isn't designed by me, an archaeologist from sweden created it, following 1:1 the old rules of designing the typycal swedish patterns from the viking period.