Recently, a former student asked me if I would be able to come up with some designs for a potential tattoo. He wanted a tattoo with the ancient Greek letters ἰχθύς (icthus). The early Christians used the Greek word icthus which means fish as a way of communicating their faith. Icthus was an anagram, each of the greek letters stood for a word which ended up being the phrase : "Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ", (Iēsous Christos, Theou Yios, Sōtēr), which translates into English as "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior". I think that is pretty cool. Thus, the origin of the Jesus fish. The persecuted christians, when meeting secretly, used the sign of drawing a fish in order to know they were followers of the Way.
Anyway, I have been thinking about how to go about this for a while. I have been sketching out some ideas. A couple of my ideas are a mix of different types of letters/languages, in a way. In the ancient early Christian church, symbolic letters and words often were a mix of latin and greek, so I thought that in the same general way, I could try my own hybrid fish.
A brief explanation of each of these designs follow:
The first one is traditional, although I did not actually draw the fish shape around the letters, I wanted the letters themselves to form the shape. I added a hopefully unique tail.
The second is a basic variation of the letters, my own style.
The third was inspired by a Hobbit font. Instead of using the greek letter Theta, I substituted the English TH equivalent.
The fourth was inspired by the Elder Scrolls font, which is a video game that I know he loves. Again, I substituted the TH.
The final sketch is a variation of a Lord of the Rings elven font, but with the greek letters only.
I think I will find out if he likes any of the concepts, before continuing, but this has been enjoyable to play around with.
Anyway, I have been thinking about how to go about this for a while. I have been sketching out some ideas. A couple of my ideas are a mix of different types of letters/languages, in a way. In the ancient early Christian church, symbolic letters and words often were a mix of latin and greek, so I thought that in the same general way, I could try my own hybrid fish.
A brief explanation of each of these designs follow:
The second is a basic variation of the letters, my own style.
The third was inspired by a Hobbit font. Instead of using the greek letter Theta, I substituted the English TH equivalent.
The fourth was inspired by the Elder Scrolls font, which is a video game that I know he loves. Again, I substituted the TH.
The final sketch is a variation of a Lord of the Rings elven font, but with the greek letters only.
I think I will find out if he likes any of the concepts, before continuing, but this has been enjoyable to play around with.
http://ramblessilently.blogspot.com/2012/03/tattoo.html
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