CUSTOM CELTIC AND NORSE TATTOOS

There’s probably a reason you keep seeing the repetitive combination of the same four knotwork designs on every arm in every city, and the answer is not that they are the good ones. But they may be the only ones that are easily available. Celtic work is rare because it’s difficult, and because there’s no original to work from. What exists are interpretations, built over decades by a handful of studios, mostly in the UK, who developed their own recognizable Celtic style. Everyone else copies them, most of the time, poorly. And the Celtic work you’ve seen in films and TV series is about as authentic as an American actor playing a Russian character and doing the accent. Drawing a comprehensive Celtic design from scratch is one of the hardest things you can ask of a tattoo artist, and most of them aren’t up for the challenge. Mike finds it therapeutic, which probably says something about him and his work.

CELTIC OR NORSE?

People ask for both, and for the most part they mean the same thing. The names get used interchangeably, and what someone pictures when they say Norse is usually what someone else means by Celtic. Mike works in it either way, so the label matters less than what you’re actually after, which is ornamental work with a more contemporary spin on it.

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WHAT MAKES A CUSTOM CELTIC TATTOO WORK

The purpose of a great custom Celtic design is to look cohesive, visually appealing, and complete, while also staying readable. Like a custom-tailored suit, it has to be designed to fit the body it will be tattooed on and that body’s physique in order to be able to enhance it, rather than just looking great flat on paper. It must have a nice flow instead of making the eye get lost in the labyrinth. Usually, the trouble an inexperienced tattoo artist attempting to design a Celtic tattoo gets themselves into occurs when the start and the finish do not match and there is no way to connect them, so the elements get lost in the process.

Mike doesn’t borrow from Celtic designs that are already out there. Each piece gets drawn for the person it’s going on, and that’s a large part of why his work is recognizable the moment you see it. The other part is color. He brings his signature colors into the design, which separates his work from the rest in a very unique way.

OUR APPROACH

ArtHouse is old school, and that applies to the design process more than anything else. No AI is involved in creating your Celtic design here. Every piece is created once, for one person. The design you get is uniquely yours, and you won’t see anyone else wearing it.
The other monumental requirement is that it has to age well. A Celtic tattoo is going to live on a moving body for the next twenty or thirty years (or longer), and the design must account for that from the beginning. Looking good on the day it’s finished isn’t the goal.

Frequently Asked Questions

DO I NEED CELTIC OR NORSE HERITAGE TO GET ONE?

No, and the appropriation worry that brings most people to this question doesn’t really apply here. Appropriation, as the term is usually understood, involves taking from a culture that was subjugated or discriminated against, and neither the Celts nor the Norse fit that. What people do owe these designs is some understanding of what they’re wearing, because the symbols carry specific meanings and it’s an awkward conversation to have when someone asks about yours and you don’t know the answer.

ARE THERE NORSE OR CELTIC SYMBOLS I SHOULD AVOID?

A few are worth knowing about before you commit rather than after, and it’s an awkward thing to learn from a stranger’s reaction at the gym.

Nazi Germany pulled heavily from Norse and Germanic imagery to manufacture an Aryan heritage it didn’t have, and white supremacist groups have carried that forward ever since. The Anti-Defamation League catalogs the results in its Hate on Display database. The entries that come up most in tattoo conversations are the Othala rune, the Tyr rune, the life rune, Thor’s Hammer, the Valknot, the sonnenrad, and the Vinland flag. There’s also a general entry covering runic script used to spell out white supremacist words.

The Celtic cross is on the list too, which surprises people. But what the ADL describes is a specific version, a square cross interlocking with or surrounded by a circle, which is also catalogued under Odin’s cross and sun cross.

What the ADL says alongside these entries is worth getting familiar with. Thor’s Hammer, the Valknot, the Tyr rune, the life rune, and runic writing in general all remain in genuine religious use among Norse pagans, and that they have to be judged by context. The database’s standing position is that few symbols actually mean one thing or belong to one group. If in doubt, ask Mike about it at the consultation and he’ll talk it through.

And don’t forget to check the database yourself: ADL Hate on Display, Norse symbols | full printable PDF

WHAT DO CELTIC KNOTS AND SPIRALS ACTUALLY MEAN?

Knotwork, the interlaced weaving most people picture when they hear Celtic, traditionally carries ideas of eternity and continuity, which follows from a line that has no beginning and no end. Spirals suggest growth and expansion. Animals and natural forms show up constantly, reflecting how closely Celtic culture tied itself to the natural world. The Celtic cross merges Christian and pagan symbolism and generally reads as faith and unity.

Worth saying that meanings vary by source and by who you ask, since much of what circulates as Celtic symbolism was reconstructed relatively recently rather than handed down intact.

CAN CELTIC WORK BE COMBINED WITH OTHER STYLES?

Yes, it’s possible. One of the more challenging projects Mike completed connected a full Japanese sleeve on one side to a full Celtic sleeve on the other through a chest piece that intricately combined elements of each style into a single cohesive design.