Burn & Pillage Tour 2014: Trælleborg

Trælleborg in Denmark is a fantastic market situated at an old fortress. It has a good blend of craftsmen for the market but also a very large group of warriors who gather and train, sing and drink daily in preparation for the huge battles staged on the weekend. The Viking hall we were situated beside is a gathering place in the evenings which made for a few late nights.

But how can you complain with a view like this?

Enjoy!

The grand hall where we attended the famous Bacon Party as well as a more intimate wedding dinner for Jette and Martin

After driving 6 hours through the rain we arrived just in time to set up before the downpour caught up with us :-)

Tattooed our friend Thorgrimur from Tyrol with a petroglyph ship and sun in negative with a swastika pattern background. We hope that this will help guide him in his travels.

Hallthor, another Tyrol warrior got a World Tree on his chest with runes to represent his siblings

Two days drawing and tattooing... we may add roots at some point, but that is all for now.

After the evening downpour the rest of the week was hot and sunny.

BACON... BACON... BACON!!!

Continued on the Thunderbird project on this firefighter.

He wanted a Phoenix in the Haida style and as the Thunderbird shares many of the attributes of a Phoenix as an element of fire it is also a bringer of rain. A great symbol for a fireman.

If Nanna didn't take photos, I'd have nothing to show of our journeys other than tattoos

I go to bed with this in the evenings... wake up to this in the mornings... and in between I get to doodle on people. Not a bad life really :-)

Nanna and Loki at the wedding ceremony

Continued a few hours on a rib piece. 

Sibling rivalry with serpent and dragon intertwined

Another serpent and dragon on this young shield maiden who I had a little extra time to press in.

"The Little Prince" in his royal blue jacket all hand sewn by his Mom

 "Put on your war face soldier!"

A couple Iron Age tetraskeles on an old client and his younger nephew

 Kim and Kenneth

Had a few hours in the morning to press in another "walk in" before we packed down and headed for Moesgaard. Ægirshjelm and Vejviser

Burn & Pillage Viking Tour 2014: Lejre

Lejre has always been a highlight of our year. I've been doing experimental archaeology there through tattooing since 2000. Over the last handful of years we have joined their Viking Market which has been growing yearly. There are other markets (and now other artists) but this is where it all started :-)

Enjoy!

 Angelica's new jewelry

 Angelica wanted a serpent wrapped around forearm 4 times to symbolize the bond between her and her siblings. This design is stylized after silver armbands found all the way back in the Iron Age and were also prevelant i Viking times as well

 Finished Eric's Ravens, Hugin & Munin to represent Thought and Memory. He wanted the Ravens facing outward, keeping an eye on the Big Picture. It also serves as a form of protection for the central Bound Rune and Spiral we did on his chest a few Summers back at Lejre.

The central symbol was tattooed at Lejre shortly after the death of Eric's father. It was tattooed only using soot and human ash. The results are a little lighter than with tattoo ink, but makes the look like it has been there his whole life... which it has :-) 

 Back to Black

When I started hand tattooing back in the 90s Tribal tattoos were very popular. Being influenced by cultural designs and techniques meant that all of my early hand work was rendered in solid black and lines, which I became quite adept at. I always tried to keep my hand tattooing separate from my machine work however over the years of travelling I've had more and more people requesting my own designs when abroad. This has meant that I have had to add the dotwork technique to my hand repertoire the last decade or so. However it is always great to go back to ones roots :-)

  

 Mikkæl has slowly been collecting two sleaves of graphic symbols... Triple drinking horns, Valknud, Thor's Hammer, Eye of Odin, Sun wheel...

 Yggdrasil, Triskele...

and now a Raven

Burn & Pillage Viking Tour 2014: Børre

Well, the Burn&Pillage Tour went very well this year... 4 weeks tattooing by hand out of a tent in some of the warmest weather we've had in years :-) Our tour started at Børre on the Oslo fjørd. This market is a bi-annual event and one of the largest gathering of Viking craftsmen of the year.

Last tattoo at the studio before heading on tour. I did the Thor's Hammer with Midgaard's Serpent at a market a few years back and he wanted The World Tree Yggdrasil with Hugin&Munin sitting in the branches to compliment it

Jette and Martin were getting married at Trælleborg Market this Summer and opted for matching tattoos instead of rings. Danish law states that it is illegal to tattoo the Head, Hands and Neck however, so they got their tattoos a few weeks early while we were still in Norway

 Did a whale tattoo on Niklas taken from a petroglyph site in Tromsø, Norway

 Proof that I am a "Kitchen Tattooist"

 Tattooed another petrogyph design in dotwork on Niklas' wife to represent their family

 I tattooed the blacksmith/knifemaker Tomek several years back and was finally allowed to tattoo his wife Anna Maria with a simple Slavic pattern from the Viking age

 Anna Maria with her new jewelry

 Skin&Bone open for business

 Relaxing while tattooing Eric the Minnisota Viking

 The first Raven of his chest piece. I tattooed the Bound Rune and Spiral on Eric several years back at Lejre in memory of his recently deceased dad. The tattoo was done using only soot mixed with the ashen remains of his father. It turned out a little lighter than with tattoo ink but I am still very pleased with the results

 An Inuit design sewn into the skin. I've been using this technique since 1998... first on myself and then on other interested individuals. Although I don't see a renaissance in the technique itself it would be nice to see the Inuit people begin using the traditional tattooing designs from their culture again.

  

 A second Inuit pattern tattooed on seamstress Brigitte Jersøe. Brigitte was born in Greenland and we hope to add a little sewing into the design as we progress around the leg.

A person snowshoeing taken from a petrogyph found in Alta, Norway

 Cecillia, one of the organizers of the Børre Market received a Viking pattern taken from the bottom of a silver bowl and which is used as the logo for her Viking group. We only got the outline finished but will be filling it out at a later date.

 Loki's selfie

Nanna by night

Liv Magasinet September 2014

What says "Fuck Jantelov" better than Nanna?

Liv Magazinet September issue attacks the Scandinavian Jantelov by interviewing women who think and act outside the box  

There are ten rules in the “Law of Jante” as defined by author Aksel Sandemose, all expressive of variations on a single theme and usually referred to as a homogeneous unit: You are not to think you're anyone special or that you're better than us.

The ten rules state:

You're not to think you are anything special.

You're not to think you are as good as we are.

You're not to think you are smarter than we are.

You're not to convince yourself that you are better than we are.

You're not to think you know more than we do.

You're not to think you are more important than we are.

You're not to think you are good at anything.

You're not to laugh at us.

You're not to think anyone cares about you.

You're not to think you can teach us anything.

These ten principles or commandments are often claimed to form the "Jante's Shield" of the Scandinavian people.

In the book, the Janters who transgress this unwritten 'law' are regarded with suspicion and some hostility, as it goes against the town's communal desire to preserve harmony, social stability and uniformity.

An eleventh rule recognized in the novel as 'the penal code of Jante' is:

Perhaps you don't think we know a few things about you?

Enjoy!