In November 2009 a young man from the Czech Republic emailed me regarding one of the turtle’s I had done for Simon’s painting. Initially he was asking for permission to use that image for a tattoo for himself.
“I found your web site today by searching for man in maze symbols. I was very absorbed by the turtle with man in maze. In this time, I am going through a hard time in my life and I am searching for what I wanna really do – job, be happy with that and doing good things to other people. As a reflection for this I would like to get a tattoo with man in maze – symbol for my life path, for good and bad times, and searching for higher spirit. So my question is if you will give me please the allowance to use the painting of turtle with man in maze as a base for my tattoo.”
I thought that showed great integrity and class that he emailed me for my permission to use it. As an artist, all my work is copywritten, however that does not necessarily stop anyone from using it without my permission. I was grateful that Jan took the time to send me an email, explaining his desire and understanding of the symbol, and the reason it was so important to him.
I replied stating that he could indeed use the symbol, but he must allow me to change it slightly for him. As I’ve stated before, all of my work is one of a kind, and the original symbol he saw was for Simon, and Simon alone. So, I suggested I could alter the image for him slightly to better fit his personality. Jan replied,”I would be very happy about the changed painting, it would be a honor to wear for the rest of my life symbol from person like you.”
I originally desigend this tattoo for Michael back in August 2005. Michael, who resides in San Francisco, wanted a design of the sun, a symbol he has always had a strong connection to. Over the span of a few weeks we went through several different designs and colours styles before we came up with the perfect image for him.
This design went to Karen, who has always felt a kinship to the Seahorse. As her last stab at youth before she quit her job in Calgary and retired to Vancouver Island with her husband in their newly built dream house… she requested I draw her a seahorse. A week later, she had it tattooed on the inside of her ankle. Of course… she didn’t tell her husband she did this, and as far as anyone knows… I had absolutely nothing to do with it. Other than draw it… and help her find a good tattoo artist, and pester her every day to get it done… but aside from that, I had nothing to do with it. Honest Dale!
About 2 months before Rhonda and I ventured down to see U2 in San Francisco, she started to contemplate the idea of getting a tattoo on our trip. She said if I designed something for her, she’d definitely get a tattoo. Great, it was decided. Then I promptly drew a blank… for a month. Calling up memory banks….. wrrrrrrr….. nuthin.
When Fiona was pregnant, she asked if I would create a symbol for the baby once it was born. But of course! Young Sir Rafe sprang forth from her loins in May 2004, but I didn’t come up with a symbol right away. I wanted to get to know him a bit first. Then while doodling in a meeting about 6 months later (I get a lot of my ideas from doodling in meetings – believe it or not it helps me concentrate) I looked down on my note pad to see this symbol suddenly staring back at me. I knew it was Rafe. I scanned and coloured it on the computer and emailed it off to Fiona that night. She was in total agreement. It was perfect!