Where did this all start?
Viking age is referred to as a little over 250-year period between 8th and 11th century when the Viking raided, explored and traded from what is now Canada to the Middle East.
Their lore is usually seen only through the Scandinavian heritage, but they’ve impacted and lived across a vast area.
Even though the Vikings were considered barbarian by the rest of Europe, their art was actually pretty sophisticated.
Viking craftsmen excelled in woodwork and metalwork, adorning brooches, weapons, implements, and ship timbers with abstracted animal forms and elaborate patterns of interlace, while runic texts and complementary scenes were inscribed on stones and rock faces.
Today, we draw inspiration and try to use precisely the elements and symbols found in their applied arts to design viking tattoos.
Through the animal and spiritual motifs used to embellish objects we see the unique way of how the Vikings were thinking about the world.
Furthermore, to understand the elements we use in Viking tattoo art, we need to look at the different historical art styles.
There are 3 historically consecutive Viking art styles that we see used mostly in Viking tattoo designs:
The Oseberg style: popular throughout mainland Scandinavia, with remarking and intricate wood carving that continue to inspire what we know today as Viking art,
The Jelling style: this is the style that starts introducing the Jelling style featured a set of interlacing creatures that form a row of fluid, S-shaped forms we commonly see in Viking tribal tattoos.
The Mammen style: the latest Viking art style (10-11th century), it was named after the archeological finding of the ceremonial axe head that continues to inspire the Viking axe tattoos. Its compositions span elongated waves and terminate in loose tendrils
