A gentleman is simply a patient wolf. Lana Turner

(Source: hyperform)

Dettifoss

Sláinte José!
I have picked five tattoos as instructed and I’ll aim to translate my thoughts on why I have those particular designs – in some cases individual tattoos over twenty years old:
As a child of an alcoholic father I’ve used tattoo to heal myself; to find methods of solidifying internal pain in bold, beautiful outcomes. I love the ancient craft and its transformative art of magick, blood and sex.
Wolfsangel: My last tattoo. I had three tattooed to represent the core members of Black Sun; Kevin Hare (Guitar and Vocals), Graeme Leggate (Bass) and myself as Drum Major Russell MacEwan. The towel used to mop up the surface bleeding from this tattoo forms the poster insert for ‘Paralyser’ album 2009. I felt it was like a shroud linking into the crucifixion theme contained in the music and lyrics. The Wolfsangel is an old German heraldic symbol used superstitiously to hang wolves on the outskirts of the village as a warning to other wolves. I made the link to Christ crucified and also Scotland’s Saint Andrew’s Cross used to martyr the saint.
Rogue Trooper Biochip:  UK comic 2000AD formed the lynchpin of my high school reading and clone soldier Rogue Trooper’s survival instinct against the odds kept me going. I was a homeless kid and living between two Aunts’ spare rooms and couches. I’d lost all grip on what I felt was home and foundation. Rogue is a “Genetic Infantryman, a genetically modified, blue-skinned, manufactured elite soldier. His comrades are in the form of biochips (onto which a G.I.’s entire personality is downloaded at the time of death for later retrieval)” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_trooper . I made myself part of the team inserting a zero in the chip. In many of life’s situations I still think “What would Rogue do?”
Forearms: Tattoo is a journey and many of my forearm designs are individuals which have been incorporated to the whole over time. The black bars are there to remind me about my strength. I bleed and scar heavily but I enjoy the process of healing and feeling a sense of rebirth when I become complete once more. I have dark and light suns, chaos symbols, i Ching all attaining a balance of sorts over time. They’re cover-ups for ex-wives and children – six in total on my right arm. A fisting gauge on my left arm.
Circular Suns: Bicep and triceps. I wanted something decorative that was a change of pace from heavy magnums of fifteen needles in one bar. I’ve used themes of suns and zeroes throughout my life and art as a necessary confirmation and destruction in times of need; simultaneously rebuilding the self from the experience.
Black Sun: Back. Underneath the ‘Black’ is ‘Zero’. I was obsessed by the writing of Primo Levi and his experiences of World War II concentration camps. ‘If This Is a Man’ first published in 1947 had a profound effect on me and particularly the character “…Null Achtzehn. He is not called anything except that, Zero Eighteen, the last three figures of his entry number; as if everyone was aware that only a man is worthy of a name, and that Null Achtzehn is no longer a man” (p.48). The lack of strong father figure; the rejection of god has all played a part in my life initially as a sense of loss and then slowly the realization of my own power. Though I have not attended the Kirk in many years I still require the sacred ritual communion that tattoo and music provides. My sun has become Black Sun over time and the knife sun also contains a zero in its centre.

I’ve used tattoo to restructure myself in my own image in tough, scarred flesh which is my armour against the outside world.
D.M. R.MacEwan
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Drum Major MacEwan is currently developing a production of ‘MacBeth The King’
SEX, MAGICK AND BLOOD. Shakespeare’s MacBeth text cut-up and reworked to Black Metal standards. Industrial percussion. Put on your warpaint, masks and animal skins. Light the fires. Led by DRUM MAJOR RUSSELL MACEWAN of Ron Athey & Company (US) and doom-metallers Black Sun (UK) the ‘Korps bring highlander rhythms and industrial witchcraft to ‘MacBeth’. A primal and visceral experience for the strong of heart and not to be missed.
Join The Korps
http://www.facebook.com/groups/337240007796/

Hermann Nitsch

Andres Serrano ‘Semen and Blood II’ 1990