Tag Archives: writethewhite

WriteTheWhite-Activity: Characters with Tattoos

As I’m trying to get back into writing I had a look through my old drafts and dug this one up.
Back then I – again –  felt inclined to do an exercise from WriteTheWhite, this time about characters with tattoos. In her post Sherri used a picture of a young man with a tree tattoo covering his chest and described a character with a similar one. The man from the picture became a werwolf and rather than the task itself (that you can find below) this reminded me of one of my own characters, whose story I have yet to tell. In an effort to finally get his project some much needed spotlight and maybe push myself to finally write it down, I decided to take up this activity.

But first let’s have a look at the Activity:

Task: Find a picture of a tattoo that inspires you. If you would like to share, post your snippet and a link to your picture in the comments.
What do you see?
Who is this person?
How old are they?
What is the tattoo of?
Why do they have it?
Is it important?
Why?
What is his world?
What does he love?
What does he hate?
Does he give his name freely?
What is it?
+ Add Questions of your own.

Finding a picture of the tattoos is quite difficult, as I have a character in mind, whose tattoos are just some sketches I made a couple of years ago and some of them are even still changing.
But what I know is this (The italic questions from above, will be answered, the normal ones are partly answered below):

The Tattoos (What do you see? What is the tattoo of? Is it important?)

Covering his back from shoulder blades down to his hips is a tribal tattoo of a wolfs‘ head looking straight at you with pricked ears turned sideways. The dark lines of the fur are interwoven, but you can still follow the strands easily. Most notably are its piercing eyes and its sharp, snarling fangs.
At first this tattoo was a dragon in a Chinese tattooing style, but it did not fit the character.
On his left (or right) upper arm you can see a pale blossomed lily encircling a round shape, that only up close can be recognized as a full moon.
Another moon can be found on his well formed abdomen, just about where his rips start, though depending on when in his time line you see it, the tattoo might only be one torn up half of the moon.
Depending as well are two small paw prints on his chest: A right one on the left side and a left one on the right side.
These all have a meaning to him and the wolf also to others, but you will have to wait a bit for more information. 🙂
Uncertain tattoos are a stripe like tribal tattoo covering his right (or left) shoulder, a five-pointed star on the back of his neck with three letters in each point and a lifelike snake encircling his leg and biting it.
Though the stripes probably go to a different character, the star-theme already felt weird as part of the plot when I first thought it up and the snake is just a silly idea for a kind of prank tattoo.

The Person

Now we get to the interesting part where I talk about him publicly for the first time. A few people have already heard – some even read – about him, but he mostly only exists in notes and thoughts.

Who is this person? How old are they? Does he give his name freely?

His full name is Michael Casper Fox.
He was born a bastard to a local farmer boy and a whore on 11th of November 1880 and mostly raised by the local Healer and Herb Woman. In his twentieth year (before his birthday) he was turned into a Werwolf. Ever since then he struggled with his wolf side and created a separate identity for it. While interacting with humans he uses his given name, Michael (Fox), while his pack only knows him as Casper. This identity soon develops into a second personality. Where Michael is caring and compassionate, Caspar is ruthless and carefree.
Though thanks to the strength and longevity of the wolf inside of him he gains the position of pack leader in his 50s – the race of wolfs he belongs to has a very slow ageing process where they can live up to thousands of years. But as he does not care much for the responsibilities this brings with it, he only acts as such if the pack is threatened and otherwise leaves the leading to two other capable pack members: His mentor/friend Cole and Justine, the daughter of the former leaders.
For a long time the most important person in his life was his older (half-)brother Andrew, he cares for him deeply and protects him at all costs. Like he does for every other person he cares about that will not be mentioned here.
This is but the tip of the iceberg of who Michael is, but he is one of my favourite characters, as I can explore many different things with him.

The Meaning of the Tattoos (Why do they have it?)

Let’s have a look at why he has these tattoos and what they stand for.

The Wolf

In my world the wolf itself is a symbol and tells you different things about the person that wears it as jewellery or tattoo. Though only some are allowed to actually wear it as you will see from the following tables:

Ears facing front facing side
pricked Alpha –
pure blood
Alpha –
bitten/born
pricked
half lowered
Beta –
pure blood
Beta –
bitten/born
lowered Omega –
pure blood
Omega –
bitten/born

If neither of the following applies than the wolf doesn’t have a special position:

Mouth Teeth snarling Tongue out
Meaning Official Executioner
for the Council
Omega

So, now do you remember how I described Michael’s tattoo?
Right, he is a bitten Alpha and an Official Executioner.
Before you complain: The Executioner’s aren’t used on a whim, they only target people – and wolves – who threaten the continued existence of wolves or that brutally violate their laws (Killing humans is forbidden – biting/turning them is already frowned upon and rarely practised).
And yes, the Werwolves have a council lead by the oldest pure blooded wolves that pass laws for the population and appoint ambassadors to deal with the humans and other creatures.
The pure blooded Werwolves derive from the first wolves in a direct line, with no human blood in the mix. Werwolves are considered as born when their ancestry includes both werwolves and humans and as bitten when they were turned by another wolf.
While Michael struggles with some of the parts of being a wolf, he is still proud of the things he achieved thanks to it. Usually this symbol of status is worn as an accessory (ring, amulet) or medium tattoo, but he – or rather Casper – decided it should cover his whole back.

The Lily and the Moon

Chosen as a memory for a friend after she is killed by a Hunter – the less law-bound human version of the Executioners – due to her own past and their friendship. He gets this tattoo in his 80s. It symbolizes her ability to accept him as what he is. Still, this tattoo gets an even deeper meaning when he falls in love with a human woman that is called Lilly, who not just returns his feelings, but also helps him to merge his personalities.

The Paw Prints

From the point of which I want to start telling his – and his families – story (where he’s about 140 years old) it is pretty clear whom the paw prints belong to, but for this I only give you a little hint: Puppies. 😀

The Moon

Just to see if the tattoo would stay he got the moon on his abdomen quite early on, as more of a joke. It is not really well done and it does look even worse after part of it is removed through an injury.

The Other stuff

I feel like answering the remaining questions or elaborating on the ones I did answer, is giving too much away of the things I want to tell, when I actually start working on (t)his story, again. Back in 2004 I started the story that would result in his, as what was pretty much a Buffy Fanfiction. While some influences of the show are still visible in the plot and characters, most of it was replaced by my variations of the themes used there and in other media. 2008 I made another attempt at writing the story down by starting on a later point in the time line with a different character (Michael got a background role in that one). I published some of the early chapters, which were pretty short, and really bad in retrospective, in a forum I was in at that time. I still didn’t have a name for the overall story and there was only little feedback, so I stopped again. Since then I merely rethought the characters and their stories, but barely wrote anything down.
There is a lot of story concerning this character and the people around him that would probably fill more than one book (probably six judging from the notes I made some weeks ago). I just don’t know how I want to put together the different parts to make the story both interesting and enjoyable and I’m not entirely satisfied with how the notes turned out. I’m also afraid that in the end it sounds like a written Soap Opera, as the struggles the characters face are more of an everyday life nature and rarely life threatening and not supernatural and murderous. But maybe I’m too hard on myself and I already have all these interesting elements, I just don’t see them any more as I’ve been working on this story for over ten years and am now too nervous to get it out.
At least I feel more and more comfortable with naming this thing Bloodlines, as it indeed focuses on the adventures of several related people.
I hope it’s okay that I re-interpreted the task again and used it to finally write a bit about this character of mine. Maybe this’ll help me to finally get started on the actual version of the whole story. It at least helped to get some much needed notes down regarding the story lines. Who knows. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter

Liebster Award

About a month ago DarkFairy nominated me for the Liebster Award, but back then I didn’t really have the time to accept it. Regardless of that: Thank you!

The Award

Now let’s have a look as to what I have to do for this:

  1. Write a Blog post with this award, add the award picture and link to the person who awarded you.
  2. Answer the 10 questions.
  3. Think up 10 new questions.
  4. Nominate 10 Bloggers with less than 200 readers (occasionally it is said below 1000, so you can nominate whomever you like). You are not allowed to nominate your nominator.
  5. Tell the Bloggers that you nominated them.

This sounds pretty similar to the simple tag-thing Fairy gave me last year and it is also used for getting out the word for unknown Blogs. Still, the name of the award, Liebster, turns this into something different.

Liebster is the German word for beloved partner or darling, in the Blogging sense, to me, it means a Blog you hold dear and greatly enjoy reading. So for me it is an honour to be granted this award and be able to give it to other Blogs I like.

Fairys Questions*

*(as translated from her Blog.)

  1.  Have you been at a festival before? If so, which one?
    Those who follow me for some time now know that I have been at several Festivals, including: the Wacken Open Air (5 times), the Metalfest Loreley (twice) and the Wave Gotik Treffen with already some finished reviews and the M’era Luna (twice), Out&Loud and Rockharz where I still have to write them.
  2. What is your worst trait?
    I think my worst trait is my pessimism. My thoughts can get pretty gloomy and dark at times and you can call yourself lucky that I refrain from Blogging when I’m in a digging mood (meaning: I’m already in a dark pit and manage to dig myself even deeper).
  3. And your best?
    I like to believe it is my sense of humour, as I do indeed make people laugh on occasion. If that doesn’t count, maybe my readiness to help others.
  4. Which book is exactly in the middle of your lowest book shelve?
    When I was first nominated I was at home and as there is stuff in front of the book shelf I couldn’t have answered the question. In my flat the lowest shelve doesn’t really contain books, so I move one up and that one is full of Manga.
    The ones in the middle are Nurarihyon No Mago’s volume 3 and 4, with more volumes and some of Ao No Excorcist on top of them. But they are currently blocked by several comics I acquired on Free Comic Book Day, some other Manga (Deathnote and Bleach) and a book I won at the Expedition Grimm. My book shelve is too small…
  5. What is the ring tone of your mobile phone? .oO(I hope not everyone has a standard ring tone..)
    For a couple of years now I’m stuck with a snippet from Edguy’s Speedhoven. When I first heard the song I just knew I wanted it as that, as it has a fast and abrupt start and is therefore quite recognizable. Just so you know: I also have Alestorm’s Heavy Metal Pirates; Happy People from the Bleach soundtrack and a standard called Rogue as alarm tones and the aptly called „message signal 3“ that sounds like someone pulling a few guitar strings, tells me about new messages.
  6. PC-, console- or better yet boardgames?
    As the last consoles I had were N64 and a Gameboy Color and I usually only play short games on the laptop, do I go for boardgames with this one. It’s much more fun to see whom you can blame for losing anyway. 😉
  7. Which movie was the last you’ve seen in the cinema?
    When I got the nomination it was X-Men: Days of Future Past, as I had just re-watched it with Fairy. By now I’ve also seen Wacken 3D, a semi-documentation on the festival that I still have to review.
  8. I had to occupy myself with so much art, now its your turn: Who is your favourite artist and why?
    As I am horrible with names anyway I can’t even think of that many. I just know I prefer art that is more like a picture than a painting, like the way Da Vinci drew. As Whovian do I also have a connection to Van Gogh, but I wouldn’t call him one of my favourites. Well, and as the inspiration for some of his most famous paintings is just a short ride away from were I live/grew up, I have to also name Caspar David Friedrich, but I really don’t have a favourite artist.
  9. Would you choose your job again or if you don’t have one yet, which did you decide to take? For both: Why?
    I have a job/profession I’ve been working in for a couple of years now. I’m not sure if I would make the same decision again to take up this job, I just know I would not partake in a dual-mode course of studying again
    I chose it, because I had similar lessons in grammar school and thought I would have something more substantial with Computer Science and Business Management than by studying English and/or German language and literature studies… Yeah, I know it’s quite a jump from one to the other.
    Still, I enjoy programming, creating algorithms and finding out about different techniques and technologies, so my choice wasn’t that bad. 🙂
  10. What is the answer to Everything? 😉
    42 😀 And it’s only a matter of time until I finally start with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

My Questions

When you receive the award from me you have to answer to the following questions:

  1. What is the best experience you ever had on a concert/at a festival/convention or an other social gathering?
  2. What is the strangest decoration you have at home?
  3. Are you collecting something? If so: What and why?
  4. What was your favourite plushy when you were a kid and what happened to it?
  5. If you had the choice: Would you start Blogging again and about the same topics you cover/ed?
  6. What do you prefer: A handwritten letter, a long e-mail or a short message on the phone/a social network?
  7. Which of your post/categories you write in is dearest to you?
  8. Which movie/book/series/etc. would you like to read/watch/etc. again for the first time?
  9. What is the place you’ve always wanted to travel to, but so far hadn’t had the chance to do so?
  10. How much time could you spent without using any kind of digital formats/mediums? (Internet, mp3s, e-books, etc.)

My nominees

The Blogs I am nominating have most likely already managed to get their 200 readers, if not even the 1000th, but I still enjoy reading them and want them to know that – and again I didn’t manage to find 10 Blogs, but I might add them later.
In alphabetical order:

#1 BiblioSmiles:
A Blog for book reviews, tips on reading and other interesting essays and posts, like their Summerbook Challenge, that I am participating in.
It’s a really interesting page and I still can’t believe that’s only been online for a couple of months…

#2 Ed Mooney Photography:
You might remember me talking about Ed’s Blog on Halloween or during my Re-Wri-Day’s. His posts are an incredible mix of history, ruin photography (pay attention to the clouds, they are awesome!) and storytelling that even caused me to buy a book.
Warning: If you are as easily suffering from Fernweh as I am, you might start planning a trip to Ireland after reading some of his Blog…(I am still wavering between using my remaining vacation days to get over there for Halloween or doing something different with them…)

#5 Geekritique:
This Blog provides you with reviews on books, movies and series, but also grants you a good overview on what is currently going on in the geek-verse and gives you inspiration on what to tackle next on your list.

#4 Piccadilly 1819:
Stephanie writes really interesting posts about series and movies regarding the portrayal of women in them. We already had quite some interesting discussions on some of her posts and I’m sure there will be more to follow them.

#5 WriteTheWhite:
Sherri tries to help her readers to lose the fear of the white page and she does so in an incredible way. I have participated in one of her activities and another one is already drafted. I currently don’t dare to look into more of her posts as it would probably animate me to write about stuff I am not supposed to write about, instead of the stuff I already need to finish…

Well, that’s it for my nominees and questions.
Try having a look at those Blogs, maybe you find something you like as well. 🙂

As for those five: Thanks for many great posts to enjoy, I hope you don’t mind the questions. 🙂

PoiSonPaiNter