Illuminated E Initial Tattoo with Celtic Design sgian dubh Captured on an ancestral family

Captured on an ancestral family crest painted on parchment

Interlocking rings

It was an unusually large white oak tree that grew from the 12th or 13th century until it fell in a storm in 1856

brave as the knight himself

taken from the opening page folio 29r of the Saint Matthew's Gospel in the 9th century illuminated manuscript

Illuminated E Initial Tattoo with Celtic Design sgian dubh Captured on an ancestral familyThe illuminated text pages in the Book of Kells (c. 800ce) frequently featured one magnificently complex letter beginning a Bible passage. This is the letter E at the start of folio 183r. It features the head of a lion and three snakes, as well as a full body of a lioness, Celtic knot work, and Pictish key patterns. A very ambitious tattoo.