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In many places and times the oak was considered a sacred tree, with Sky-gods and kings, strength and life. Its ACORNS were most important foods for Native North Americans and today it source of lumber. Yet its bark has been used for medicinal The oak was the favorite tree of Zeus and THOR and was Druids. Tattoos of the oak, or any tree, come in all manner of styles and even colors, but the true hues of the various rich browns and greens are used to beautiful effect. They are worn in different locations including the lower back or upper arm, and their position can dictate the the heavy trunk and dense foliage will take and how the design the body.

The ocean is ultimately a symbol of dynamic and changing, if den, life. Tattoos that use the ocean as a major theme may ber of aspects. Whether cold and stormy or warm and clear, somehow primeval and the source of life in many mythologies. tool will portray the ocean as if in a photograph, with perhaps a journey or a far-off continent or LIGHTHOUSE. Others focus on water life to be discovered, as though one were submerged to the incredible array of shapes and colors that sea creatures can take. Both types of tattoos speak to a transitory world of the undated with images of life.

This eight-armed sea creature has been used for decoration in ancient Europe from Greece to Ireland, although we know little of its meaning to these ancient cultures. Because of its ability to capture prey with its tentacles and devour it with its sharp beak, the octopus has sometimes been regarded as a beast of the Underworld. In tattoo art, though, the octopus takes on many different forms, from ornate blackwork designs to richly colored Japanese pieces, from small logolike forms of great symmetry to back pieces that trail tentacles all around the torso. It also has a particular, though certainly not exclusive, association with women either images of octopi with women or tattoos of them on women with the tentacles wrapping themselves everywhere.

Although we cannot say what significance the octopus may have had for the inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), it is one of the few designs that we can at least identify with some surety. This highly stylized octopus motif is known to have been carved on the top of the head of a fragmentary Moai, used in rock art on the island, and was also a historic-period tattoo.

Odin was one of the primary gods of Norse mythology and principally a god of war. Slain warriors were permitted to join him in Valhalla, escorted by the Valkyrie, his maiden servants. However, there is no RUNE with the name of Odin. Instead, this is actually the othala rune, which be- came associated with Odin. It has been adopted by neo-Nazis as a symbol of their cultural her- itage and an attempt to connect themselves with ancient Norse mythology.

One of the most symbolic of trees and BRANCHES is the olive. From the ancient Mediterranean, we have received the dual association with peace and war. The Roman goddess Pax used it as her symbol and messengers suing for peace would carry an olive branch wrapped in wool. It was also used by Athena, however, and worn as a laurel on the head of military victors. In an Old Testament story, a DOVE brings back an olive branch to Noah, signaling an end to the flood. In tree form, it is sometimes associated with the World Tree or axis mundi, as in Islam where it is the symbol of universal man, of the prophet, and the paradise of the chosen. With its many branches and its dark-green, lance-shaped LEAVES, silvery on the underside, its beauty has been noted through the ages.