By London Reese
05.16.11
The Vatican Tattoo Studio
Lake Forest, OC CA, 92630
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Joseph is a great client of mine who presented a very powerful concept for this chest panel tattoo. We literally discussed and compared ideas for 3 months as I sat at the drawing board; sketching several drafts of what would eventually be one of my most important works to date. Joseph asked me to depict his arduous inner struggle with the idea of Religion Vs. Science. Thematically, I became obsessed with this piece. The ancient idea of "good vs. evil", the concept that there are two sides to every story, the unending argument of (the Christian) God as truth and the contrasting view that science is fact... a mind-bending amount of information and theories that have plagued agnostic minds for centuries surfaced and I could not wait to tackle this project. A difficult task, maybe; but I was eager to make this idea come to life. We decided to use tangible statues of an angel and demon to show the ancient concept of good and evil. They are battling each other; both reaching for the heart or "truth". They are reaching for the same object, thinking they are reaching for something completely different. Having a different view of something than someone else does not mean that you are right or wrong. Science is man made ideology. Religion is man made ideology. We decided to depict this through metaphoric images. The heart might be the most important and complex part of this tattoo. The angel is reaching for the 'sacred heart' (religion) while the demon is reaching for the modified anatomical heart (science). The glowing heart itself is a representation of human life; frail and dependent on love, faith, and a well-nourished soul. Typically, a sacred heart is surrounded by thorns and has a flame coming from the top. Instead of a flame, we have floating atom particles dancing between the two figures; depicting 'science' as an ongoing argument between theologians and scientists. The temperature gauge and illuminated Power button on the heart are symbols of technology, knowledge and man's drive to progress. The power button, much like that of a modern gadget, shows that we can be "turned off" at any time, regardless of our beliefs. I wanted this image to be powerful and still ambiguous. Hopefully it will spark some interesting conversation as it did for Joseph and I.