Long story short, I'm getting some new ink soon. The tattoo itself will contain the latin quote "Hic sunt dracones," which loosely translates as "Here be dragons." A common notation put on un-explored territories on maps before the world had been 'fully' explored. There's a plethora of metaphors to be extracted from this, so I won't go into all that now. Now, in addition to this quote, the tattoo will also have a map of sorts.

I'm just curious if anyone here knows anything about any symbolism of cartography, most specifically from Western Europe around the medieval period (although any region and any time is good, this stuff is interesting, after all. ). I'd like to include some symbolism within the map itself which ties into the symbolism of the quote and what it stands for for me personally, as well as how it ties into another tattoo I will be getting in the future (Large dragon over my shoulder). This includes the shape and formation of the land mass itself. I don't just want a blob that looks vaguely like a piece of rock, I want something intricate that has some meaning behind it.

Anything symbolizing difficulty, triumph, conflict, mythology, etc. is what I'm after. Not just things you'd find on the map legend. I've spent some time looking through styles of script for the lettering, as well as some maps to grasp the style of the cartography from the era of exploration. Any and all insight is greatly appreciated.

How about a place where something important happened to you - where you grew up, for example - but rendered in the style of a medievil map (as I imagine there's not that many maps of 12th century Canada.. )

Very interesting question: one I've never had cause to ponder, so had a quick look round and found this:

http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/EML.html

The T/O format is quite strong as an abstract graphic - Example

Quote :

A T in an O gives us the division of the world into three parts.
The upper part and the greatest empire take nearly the half of the world.
It is Asia; the vertical bar is the limit dividing the third from the second, Africa,
I say, from Europe; between them appear the Mediterranean Sea.

from: http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/205mono.html

This is interesting too, though it dumps cold water on the "here be dragons" thing:

http://www.strangehorizons.com ... 20610/medieval_maps.shtml

Quote from Crashgate3 :

How about a place where something important happened to you - where you grew up, for example - but rendered in the style of a medievil map (as I imagine there's not that many maps of 12th century Canada.. )

That thought had crossed my mind, then I realized that I couldn't think of such a place. Then I thought about maybe using a land mass vaguely resembling a dragon. Still not sure what exactly I'll do.

Quote from nihil :

Very interesting question: one I've never had cause to ponder, so had a quick look round and found this:

http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/EML.html

The T/O format is quite strong as an abstract graphic - Example

Very interesting, thanks! I'll do some more research on this.

Quote :

from: http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/EMwebpages/205mono.html

This is interesting too, though it dumps cold water on the "here be dragons" thing:

http://www.strangehorizons.com ... 20610/medieval_maps.shtml

I read some of that, and it seems very interesting. I'm at work right now so I can't read it all, but I'll definitely finish it. Even if the 'Hic sunt dracones' thing is, indeed, a myth, I'm still using it though I want to draw upon the mythology for this tattoo. Maybe I can extrapolate something from the facts in that page.

Thanks guys!

I used to have a part-time job drawing custom artwork for a tattoo artist. One day when I showed up, the guy's assistant was in the back
cleaning used needles with bleach and a toothbrush. They're supposed to use new needles each time. I bailed on the guy cause he was trying to stiff me on money. I got what was owed and quit. That's ok, he was working on a piece on this biker... a big tattoo on his back, got about 1/4 of it done, then just sort of quit on him. real reliable guy that one. He would only work every once in a while - once in a GREAT while and lost his lease on his shop. Last I heard he was incarcerated for some sort of fraud.

Anyways, good luck on getting your ink and I hope it ain't from a guy like this one.