“Art Forms in Nature” as tattoo inspiration

Today I went into Supergenius Tattoo to see my tattoo artist Jeff Cornell. I want to get another piece on me by him before I move to New York City. I’m thinking about seaweed. It continues the idea from my other arm’s tree. The tree is strong, stable, provides shelter, gives life, etc. And seaweed is similar. There are forests of seaweed, is provides shelter for fish, and life as food. I also live the branching web of seaweed. Its a common thread with me as I also like the branches of Winterhazel. We talked and he let me look through a book called “Art Forms in Nature”. It was amazing. All kinds of illustrations of nature done in a very classic way.

So I came home and did some research. Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature) is a book of lithographic and autotype prints by German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Originally published in sets of ten between 1899 and 1904 and as a complete volume in 1904, it consists of 100 prints of various organisms, many of which were first described by Haeckel himself.

I definitely see an interpretation of something from his book now on me. I do want Jeff’s own artistic take and not a straight copy. I found a German site which has his entire originally published book “Art Forms in Nature” scanned and available. Its been 70 years since Haeckel’s death so the images are now in the public domain. I’ve downloaded the whole book and really look forward to looking at them all.

Tags: Art

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