Currently working my way through a Half Sleeve. Bonus points for people who recognise the different Species.
Man... I recognize some of these but I don't think I'd get the names and I definitely couldn't get specific. I do see oak with acorns in there (easy one). One looks like locust or ash... Birch or a cousin of it... Where do you live? I'm guessing not the US due to your spelling of "recognise" and in that case I probably won't get these May I ask what the significance is?
I'm an Englishman, if that explains my dialect.
Three for three, impressed you got Ash and it's American relative. That many Bonus Points, + your standard points for being a QC fan gives you a real world total of.... *converts from British to American* About a Pint and a Half of Real Ale, redeemable in person, If that ever happens
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The Significance is many fold. 1. I have a Job for a year, and I wanted a Long project I could invest in. Hopefully get the colouring all done before my contract ends and I go back to uni.
2. Last year, the Military cutbacks (I'm currently on a years leave from the OTC, which is part of the TA, which is like the reserves) meant I spent almost no time on exercise, and I really missed the outdoors, I got winterblues for the first time ever because I spent most of my time indoors, and so I want to always have a bit of Summer with me.
3. They are all native British tree's, and I plan on emigrating someday, I want to always have a bit of English Forrest with me.
4. Each tree I selected then has meaning
The Full List is:
Black Poplar (the big leaf at the top): There was a Black Poplar growing next to the farm house I grew up in. As Old as the House (a good 400+ years), and thick as anything due to centuries of coppicing. It blew down in a gale last year. It was the tree I used to climb and built a tree house and everything in. But, despite it's death, it lives on. The Branches and Roots that weren't killed off when it fell, now grow up as a row of new trees. And I have the tattoo.
Ash and Oak are the two quintessentially English trees, and are a useful weather predictor, Oak before Ash, in for a Splash, Ash before Oak, in for a Soak.
I have a spray of Hawthorn just beneath the Black Poplar, with May Flower. Hawthorn is one of my favourite Hedgerows in the UK, I love eating Haw (which most people don't even think of as edible), and it's a lovely carving wood.
Underneath the Hawthorn is Blackthorn, also know as Sloe. One of the Ancestors of modern plums, used for making slow gin, which is the first drink I got illicitly drunk on. Blackthorn is what they make Shillelaghs from.
There's a Beech that is now coloured in as copper beech, underneath/next to that is Rowan, which has bright red berries. Rowan and Beech are both wild foods I like, and also Tolkien references. Copper Beech is Mallorn, and Rowan was made by the Ents as a gift for the Entwives.
Willow is the source of Salicylic Acid, which is what Asprin is derived from. I'm a Chemist, and so it's a reminder of the connection between the Natural and Synthetic.
Alder is an odd one, it's at the top next to the black poplar. I love this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZGlYIdv7Mo by Alela Diane, and Alder added colour and variation by having the catkins, but it grows everywhere around my new place of work, which was nice, and it's catkin's are apparently edible, if not tasty.
I'm an Archer and Bowhunter, Bowyer and Fletcher, so How could I not Include Yew? It's (arguably) the best wood for bows.
Birch is a most useful tree, the tinder, and sap, the tar and assosiated fungus.
The Linden Tree is known to me as Lime, I have fond memories of me and my first GF on Limetree road, the Limes are also the wood I learned to whittle with. It's young leaves are also edible, and make a great salad filling for a burger.
I think that explains some of it. Eventually it'll have a background, but that'll be a long time coming. Should be a norse/celtic keywork pattern in a woad blue.
I also have a few other body mods, my first I posted up in this thread a few years back:
http://forums.questionablecontent.net/index.php/topic,7913.msg697353.html#msg697353the other is:
A Scarification I got Last year. It's healed up much too well now, and is just faint white lines. But I still like it. Kinda nice that it's slowly fading, like my body is slowly absorbing the flint (at least I won't get silicosis from that one).
Eventually my Flora Sleeve will be matched by my Collection of Fauna. It's interesting to look back on the first post I put in this thread, Lots of ideas I had back then. Still no peircings, and not likely to get any soon.