this is a repaint/draw of a rare american traditional tattoo motif. much like a rock of ages or a sailors grave evoked (and continues to evoke) a certain emotional/aesthetic significance at just a moment's glance, this heart-wrenching image cuts right through you immediately... doubtless from an era in our history when mourning was part of our national consciousness, i had not encountered this particular motif until working for Mr. G and Madame Chinchilla at the
Triangle Tattoo Museum. we were offered the enviable task of organizing and documenting a giant stack of very old acetate tattoo stencils. they ranged in age from ca. 1930 to 1970-80. this motif was among some of the older of the batch...
this is a scan of a photocopy of the original acetate... our guess as far age was sometime during the WW period, if you look at the window on the right side of the image, there is a sunbeam which i'm going to loosely associate with sunset over the ocean and a candle to light her lover's way home... if anyone knows what this motif is called, or has any other images of it, please lemme know.
here's my repaint.
