Saturday, October 24, 2020

Explaining My Chest Tattoo

I get a lot of questions asking about the tattoo on my chest a lot. 

A number of stories use the ouroboros. The story I got my tattoo from is a manga that was later adapted into two different animes called Full Metal Alchemist. With the placement, I selected mine is from the character "Lust".

Mostly on TikTok, I get a lot of questions about this piece because it's obviously "old" and people are super curious about what it means. I have not fully come out on TikTok with the full history of the symbol because mine is actually a mixture of TWO symbols. This ouroboros on my chest isn't JUST an ouroboros, it also has a seal of Solomon in the center. Yes, a seal of Solomon. A hexagram. How is it different from a star of David? It's not really. They're both hexagrams but let's talk about the ouroboros first and then we'll come back to the seal of Solomon. 


Originating in ancient Egyptian iconography, the ouroboros entered western tradition via Greek magical tradition and was adopted as a symbol in Gnosticism and Hermeticism and most notably in alchemy.
An ouroboros is a snack eating its tail. It has become symbolic of "self-sustaining" or "invincibility".
My tattoo is from the anime Full Metal Alchemist where they put the seal of Solomon in the center.
The seal of Solomon is a hexagram (✡︎), however is different from a star of David known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of modern Jewish identity and Judaism. The hexagram, being an inherently simple geometric construction, has been used in various motifs throughout human history, which were not exclusively religious.
The seal of Solomon is the signet attributed to King Solomon in medieval Jewish tradition and in Islamic and Western occultism.
Due to the proverbial wisdom of Solomon, his signet came to be seen as a symbol of Renaissance-era magic, occultism, and alchemy.
Seal of Solomon protects against demons, evil spirits, and jinn (genies) while also granting the power to speak with animals.
What distinguishes a Seal of Solomon from a Star of David is the two triangles are interlaced giving the appearance of a 3-dimensional figure. 
Here the current videos that attempt to shed light on my tattoo.
If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them 😉

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