Archive for April 22nd, 2008

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Apr 22nd, 2008

Ogham my…

I got more hard-earned payment for my webdesign efforts today!  I burned candles from all ends working on Celt Clan Ink, and it’s pretty much finished, barring a few tweaks and a more involved forms page.  There are now some pretty excellent photos in there.

So anyway, back to my payment:

What’s that all about then?

  • Ogham was carved and read from BOTTOM to TOP.
    (Also carved, occasionally, right to left).
  • Also written as ogam or ogum, it is pronounced “AHG-m” or “OH-ehm.”
  • Ogham served as an alphabet for one of the ancient Celtic languages. Its origin is uncertain: it may have been adapted from a sign language.
    Current understanding is that the names of the main twenty letters are also the names of 20 trees sacred to the druids.
    Some authors have suggested the existance of a 13 month calendar which shared some of these names.
  • A 15th century treatise on Ogham, The Book of Ballymote, confirms that ogham was a secret, ritualistic language.
    However, there is no direct evidence that the Ogham alphabet was used [in antiquity] for divination or any other magical purposes.  (Taken from     http://ogham.lyberty.com/oghamintro.html)

    • The first third of the tattoo is the name of my firstborn.  The numbers show the date of his birth, and the infinity symbol represents his place in this world.

    The latter part is the name of my little girl, with a smiley face slyly hidden to represent her infectious happiness.

    I used the following alphabet (there are many different versions) and added my own tweaks and scribbles to add more information:

    I’m aware that I’m going to have to explain all of this many many times during my life, but it’s ok.  It’ll give my taxi punters a good conversation start,  I’m sick of talking about the weather.

    The Accidental Terrorist has gone a bit mental regarding the website contract, he is planning a portrait of Wouldye on his shoulderblade, and has already gone for some celtic warrior inking:

    Pretty amazing art, innit?

    What was that website again?  Oh yeah… Celt Clan Ink!  Great design, isn’t it?  I wonder who wrote that site…