Since ancient times, the survival and propagation of the species has represented a primary and essential need for the human being.
The reproductive act and the organs involved in them became for the most primitive religions something sacred and inviolable, for which it was necessary to propitiate the protection and help of the gods.
For this reason the so-called fertility cults were born and began to spread, where in association with ritual ceremonies of various types we find appropriate objects and sculptural representations, of phallic or vulvar shape, suitable for the purpose.
Subsequent forms of worship, over the centuries, have gradually forgotten this original meaning, associating instead the more sinful and obscene aspects.
In this very original project I mixed various figures linked to some ancient fertility cults.
On the shoulder, completely healed for some time, there is a representation of a Sheela-na-gig.
In some churches, castles or other medieval buildings, particularly in the territories of Great Britain and Ireland, it is possible to come across bas-reliefs depicting female figures (the male counterpart is sometimes present, but is much rarer) represented with an exaggerated enlargement of the vulva, most often displayed ostentatiously (one of the best examples of figures of this type can be seen outside the small church of St Mary in Kilpeck, Herefordshire, another well-known example is that found in the rotunda of the Rattoo tower, County Kerry, Ireland)
Closely but not necessarily linked to fertility is the theory that sees in Sheela-na-gig the reminiscence of the figure of an ancient pagan divinity, one of the many mother-goddesses of antiquity.
To design it, I used Norse-inspired knots and correlated them with a Mjöllnir, Thor's hammer, also a symbol of fertility.
Going down near the elbow, a knotted ornament binds together two animal figures, in particular a goat and a sow, beasts sacred to the goddess Freya who were sacrificed to her during fertility rites.
The goddess Freya is represented immediately below her, encircled in her mythological hawk robe.
Below her I drew two figures, the first is Freyr, one of the main deities of the Vani, brother of Freya, whose qualities as god of fecundity are evident in all sources. He is also called Yngvi, progenitor, where Ingwaz is the name of the rune that indicates the primordial ancestor.
He is described to us by Adam of Bremen as "cum ingenti priapo" and this makes him, unequivocally, a male deity of fecundity.
In front of him, Frigg, Odin's wife, Baldr's mother, supreme among the goddesses who has much in common with Freya.
She is probably a goddess of love of Germanic origin, it is said that she helps women in childbirth and her name, which means "beloved", "bride", has given its roots to the name of Friday, which was in ancient times the day consecrated to both the goddess Frigg both at the celebration of weddings and at the fruitful union of the married couple.
To bind all the elements of this sleeve there are runes, visible above all on the inside of the arm.
These are real magic formulas found on stones, jewels and so on, written in the ancient Norse languages.
Most of the runes you see in my tattoos come from studies on university books, I use real runic writings cataloged and translated by accredited runologists, usually archived in museums or universities, these writings being really rich both in terms of quantity and meanings, I find it the most serious way to relate to runes.
