I on the same boat and your right, there isn't a lot of info on it. However, as you most likely know, you have to go through it to understand the effect.

The vast majority of people I know who have tattoos have done them ritually or the tattoos have personal meaning or symbolism. There's tons of info available on tribal stuff, maori, etc. Look up Fakir Musafar at the very least.

If I ever worked with, say, an indigenous group of people who used tattoos as part of their initiatory process, I would have the marks appropriate to my involvement.

I have no tattoos, nor would I seem likely, at my age, to ever start. The main reason for me not having tattoos, even though I have strong connections to symbols in my own AOS for example, comes down to permanence. Whenever I have thought about making some image indelible, I find myself freezing in situ and thinking "no, I need stay fluid in mind" ... as simple as that.

I do, however, use body/face paints in ritual, at times, and find that most effective to impress the mind.

Su

Some nine months ago, I'd still have firmly stated that tattoos were a permanent modification and that since the river is never the same twice, I would never have one.

Besides, inwardly, I had this naggging intuition (rightly or wrongly, doesn't matter) that tattoos were once (?) used as a sacrficial pledge to the land... that it somehow meant you'd be willing to "engage in the myth of the eternal return" to safeguard the earth that gave you life... (?)... and I thought that I'd never willingly return...

Never say never.

He died.

Tattooless because I had argued him out of it... funny how life is...

And I carried on like a mad banshee and later on, I wrote a ton of words and waved my magic mouse around until my fingers ached...

"Love does unexpected things to a person. It gives him or her the ability to look past the incidentals of their lives and offers instead the unparalleled opportunity to recognize and gaze fondly at the God/dess
spark dwelling within each other.
It's killing me, this drowning sense of both pure unselfish & selfish love
and overflowing longing for the Beloved who disguised as the beloved, oh
so gently tapped open the door into my heart and blew it to smithereens...
leaving a gaping door behind in the wake of his passing... there's nothing
left now for me to see except the whole world, the stars, the moon & so
many pairs of glinting eyes that words fail me.
I could shatter things, I could shout, I could whisper, I could kiss the ground beneath me and press my forehead against each pair of hands that fold in front of me. But I just sigh and smile instead, with a tear meandering in the eyelashes, the message is already out. It's been out in circulation since before the time of the Vedas. Siddhartha contemplated It. Yeshua lived It. Rumi longed for It. St. John stayed awake through his long night for It. Meister Eckhart craved to give birth to It. With the advent of quantum physics, It has outfitted itself with the glittering gown of monistic idealism.
Everyone and everything is in the Beloved.
Pain can be such a paradoxical doorway into the numinous beauty of Life...
yet how I wish not to have been dragged across its threshold...
All I can tell you is that love transcends space-time.
We are individual structures in the tangled hierarchy of the Quantum
Consciousness.
We are cells in the body of God/dess.
Parallel meanings in the languages of science and religion...."

And I went to get a tattoo of my own design in memory of the Beloved's mask.
The process lasted almost four hours and it was painful, yes.
But, seeking to relief a larger pain with a minor one doesn't work.
That part of the process was based on human error.
But as a symbol of my surrender to the Beloved, it served its purpose.

Sorry for the length of this post, it started as a short thing...

Eddie I think that tatoos for ritual purposes are more common than you think. Since I tuned myself in to the frequencies of the western occult I've noticed a great many "interesting" looking people with occult symbols tatooed on their hands and forearms. Also I've noticed a number of recurring symbols much smaller and simpler in nature that seem to dentoe group affiliations. Granted I do live in a city which claims to be the occult capitol of North America, with good reason.

I'm in the opposite boat. It is for ritual purposes that I keep my body completley unmodified. The nature of my magic is constantly changing, and I don't believe that to simply change your outlook on a symbol would change the way that symbol interacts with the aether in your aura or the general akasha. For the same reason I wear no amulets or jewlery or antyhing of the sort, allthough I may be inclined to the latter at some other point in my life.

I think that tatoos are a great form of magckal expression. I've used them my self. After a series of rituals to stabilize some anger management issues I had in my 20's, I had a tatoo done that both symbolizes the personification of my inner anger (as part of the naming and reconciliation process). For me, both the image it's self and the location are symbolic, as I also do a lot of qabalistic work, it's tattooed where the 'sphere' of geburah/mars would be to further the identification.

It's worked well in it's intent. Such a tatoo is like a sigil that one sees daily every time one looks in the mirror. Combined with the actual physical process of pain and process and intent that goes into a personal tatoo it' seems to be a natural match. Especially for long term change in one's life. One can loose a sigil or forget an intent, but a tatoo stares back at you at every turn till you visit the plastic surgeon with the laser....

I have three sigil tattoos.
one is just a monogram in honour of my old name,
the other two are alphabet of desire tatts.

One design I waited until I forgot what it was for before I had it tattooed.

The other I remember, but tell no one.

my two cents
Azi

Yes I am in the process of using magik with my newest tattoo. The dragon is something deep and primal and I'm doing this as a gift to my dragon. My dragon protects me and teaches me hard lessons in life. I don't really like to talk about it much, since it has a lot of deep meaning to me, and is very very personal. So I'm not going to going any further.

thanks
Eeklsy

As the first examples of tattooing (at least that we've discovered so far) were magical, I am amazed that they seem to be used very rarely for this purpose nowdays. I am both a tattoo artist & heavily into chaos magic (I worship Set, via myself) & do a few magic-related tattoos but nowhere near as many as I would have thought. The earliest recorded examples of tattooing discovered to date were found on an Ice-age Scythian hunter found frozen in a glacier. They consisted of various patterns and totem animals over the arms leading into a trail of reindeer across the upper back. It is theorised that their purpose was to attract the animal & bring success in the hunt

Check out my new chaos dragon!!!

I have a tattoo of Zain on my middrift, eye of horus above a serpent. Rather large. A black cobra on my left lower back. In the future, I plan to get another cobra on the right hand side and a dragon on my spine.

Ok, this is a subject near and dear to my heart. At the ripe old age of 41 (almost 42) I've had the desire for a tattoo. I have thought of sigils but I would like my first one to be of Cho-Ku-Rei, the Reiki symbol. What prevents me is the fact that I have a lot of allergies. Is there any way to find out if you are allergic or not to the ink? I have heard of people have reactions. That bothers me more than anything.

okay, i'll admit it, i got a big tattoo from a magick book. the artist put in on clean, it is obvious. i didn't ritualize anything besides photocopying it, presenting it, and sitting through it getting put on. sometimes i make believe that people who use it for magickal purposes, i might get blown a spell. i like getting nervous when i'm bare backed, like someone is going to recognize it and their eyes will squint with disapproval, like i didn't make the glamour cut....

All my tattoos have spiritual/esoteric symbolism. I didn't really think of them as sigils at the time(because I wasn't familiar with them at the time), but they definitely have that aspect. There was enough pain with my tattoos to charge them up good. I'd say I definitely an influence from them in my life, and I look forward to more magickal tattoos in the future.

Deadjellyfish gave an excellent retort when confronted with this question.

I will paraphrase: If you are okay with destroying it after you charge it. Things can, and often do, go awry. You won't want to keep the tattoo after you have made a magical association with it.

I would say, "Fogetaboudit." But, maybe you like sandpaper, laser, or whatever to remove tattoos that didn't work out magically?

The best laid plans of mice and men.....

I have one tattoo, on my left forearm, a combination chaos sign and dagger/sword. (see my profile)

Several years ago I was involved in a group that was trying to be an actual tribe, based on many traditions, but primarily Native American in its rituals. I was perhaps going to be the shaman for the group, and I took that very seriously. Unfortunately, that group is no more, but here is a story of how my tattoo popped itself into what was supposed to be a brainstorming session, and turned into a ritual.


Tuesday December 27 2005?
NOTE: My Tribal Name is Rising Buffalo
NOTE I thought there might be significance to direction, so I have included it here, thought I was not aware of direction while this was going on. I was physically facing roughly East throughout.

I was taking a shower and decided to sit down for a moment, relax and think about the ceremony I was planning on doing on behalf of my friend, Josh. The ceremony was intended as a healing and strengthening, for I perceived he was going through a difficult time, but he would not allow me to discuss certain points with him, because he did not feel comfortable.

I did not know precisely what I wanted to do, save I knew I would incorporate a rope with knots tied into it, symbolic of struggle, like the Wiccan tradition wherein one makes such a rope and unties knots as specific points are dealt with.

So I closed my eyes and calmed myself as the warm water washed over me. I began to think of the woods by the side of my house, how I loved a certain spot down by the stream that runs behind my house. I remember thinking that it was not the land where I was born, (we moved there when I was four) but it was the land of my heart, and fondly looking through the woods. This spot is roughly North of where the circle was where the ceremony began to take place in my mind. It lies at the bottom of a short slope that opens onto a field
Then I saw myself beating a drum, while standing in this field. I had a drum on the left side of body and beat it while walking around a circle, which had Josh in the center, sitting cross-legged, eyes closed. POINT: The circle was only around Josh; everyone else was outside of it. He was facing roughly WEST, with his back to the EAST and though I did in fact walk around the circle, I remember facing him most of the time, though on an angle, so my back was to the SOUTHWEST.

NOTE: The circle was a black circle, smooth as if made from packed dirt, with no grass under it.

I then thought of how as of yet, we have no Male initiation ceremony, and I pictured my other named brothers Laughing Dragon, Racing Black Snake and Dreaming Cougar. Interestingly, I did not really picture Shadow Cat who Moves Like a River, though I was thinking of all the guys in general.

They were standing to my left, facing Josh, their backs to the WEST. I remember we were all shirtless and I remember Racing Black Snake most vividly, drumming like a maniac, and Dreaming Cougar vaguely screaming something, like “YEAH!” the same way he does when he spars. I had a vague flash of Laughing Dragon just kind of there.

I was drumming with two hands, my shoulders rolled forward and my palms striking the drum, almost as if I were walking on it. I was intellectually thinking at this point, going through what ifs, and thinking about ceremonies I had heard of, initiations, and the things associated with a primal nature.

Now, both Josh and the rope constantly flashed in my mind
I pictured the rope as red, and thought it was red for blood, and also sin.
I thought of what kind of blood it would be, where to get it. I was still trying to sort out what I wanted to do.

I thought of the image of a knife being dragged across the palm and rubbing the blood from the wound on the rope. I thought of something that looked like a padded drumstick, dipped in blood and sprinkling it on Josh’s Forehead.

The Following I did physically, in the shower as well as in the vision facing EAST

It seemed like I was still in the field where everything else took place, but much vaster.
As if the small area was magnified. All the other people were gone. I was alone.
I made a Chaos sign in the air, and punched my hand through its center.
I dragged my right hand roughly across the knife in my tattoo, as if cutting into me in a much deeper way. It hurt and I breathed heavy as I held my hand up.

I began to growl and hook my hands like claws, I leaned forward. I had a glimpse of Cheetah or Leopard, but began to feel definitely Cougar as the picture solidified and the feeling became stronger. I had flashes of Buffalo and I stomped my right front hoof.
The cougar was growling at something to the SOUTH but the thing was unclear. I had a feeling of being this Cougar at first but then felt much more the Buffalo, calmly but sternly facing South while standing in the EASTERN or SOUTHEASTERN point in the circle. The Cougar was skirting the edge of the circle, gave up a loud yell and hopped onto the Buffalo’s back.

I felt very much like I was seeing through the Buffalo’s eyes and felt the cougar was another personality, and then the being on the other side solidified as JACKAL coming from the SOUTH, looking at us like a puppy almost like it was asking why the cougar was growling, very different from the feeling of malevolence I felt when I could not see it clearly.

The cougar reached out with its forepaw and grabbed the red rope with a claw and held it over a fire which was in the circle. I remember seeing the Jackal with flames around it, whimpering, and then though no this is wrong, it shouldn’t be hurt. The flames subsided and now I, standing as a person was left there in the circle, looking at the Jackal, we locked eyes, I pointed back to the SOUTH, it nodded and left.

I looked up, eyes closed and thought, BY THE GREAT SPIRIT THIS IS DONE; I AM NOTHING and then added BUT A SERVANT.

I then saw a steam of white light come down from the sky and slam into my stomach, throwing me backwards, as my hands were held out to the side like you do when someone says stick em up. I breathed quickly and felt afraid in anticipation and then was physically thrown back against the wall of my shower I didn’t breathe for about 20 seconds. Then I opened my eyes, and felt almost a little sick. I went to my room and lay down, and felt very good and very warm, but unsettled.

THE END
I

Hi Eddie,

I personally have 3 beautifully designed tattoos all designed by my ex husband who is a practitioner of the dark arts. He is demon borned but has a heart of gold.

However due to some indifference I decided to leave him, of which th reason I do not wish to speak of..

Anyways, from him I learned how to enchant my tattoos and how to tap into the power of it. True enough, there are a great many things you can do with an enchanted tattoo. They formed my personal protection against the dark forces and they aid me in my trips into the other planes of existence when I astral project on a nightly basis. However, blood enchantments are not easy to upkeep and maintain and can take out alot of your energy if you are not practicing throughly... Shouldnt be too big a problem for adept magic practicioners though...

I have 1 tattoo designed from a sword, that holds my astral sword, a tattoo with a pair of wings, that one holds my pair of wings which somehow i acquired when i awaken to my powers and a tattoo which looks like vines with roses, that formed my astral wall of protection (somewhat like an armour.)

Great topic! My body is a work of art in progress.....i have been doing the whole tattoo thing for 20 years.....more?
My latest tattoo is The Triple Goddesses on my left shoulder. I also have a Ghostrider on my lower left back,
The right side has a Crow Medicine Shield, A Mosaic Tiger in clouds, The Hardy Boyz symbol(purple, Jeff & Matt Hardy inspire me...),
down my right shoulder to my right arm -- i have swirls, a Green Eye, a Faiery.
On my right chest i have a Space Scene above , what was a Phoenix. I had Breast Cancer, had a double mastectomy in 2006....

I have 3 tattoos for my kids on my right thigh, and 1 on my left calfe.......

I have mapped out the rest of my back with my artist......

all my tattoos are personal to me.....mystical to me. I strongly believe that they can be useful in magick. That is why i got The Triple Goddesses tattoo, to affirm my Pagan Path.

Many Blessings to all,
Teresa