Whether it is drawn in the style of Old School or New Traditional, the lantern is no less than the ultimate answer to our need to embrace the light
The lantern has always been associated with the idea of light. Light in the sense of “emanation”, but also transmission of life in a sort of reincarnation without end, like in Buddhism.
At the same time, it can be seen as a symbol of the quest for truth through the use of our human intelligence and what we might call an “illuminated mind”.
Lighting a lantern is usually a metaphor, a strictly private ritual, to bring some light to the darkness which surrounds us. Symbolising our complete liberation from the ingnorance and confusion of the world around us.
That’s why getting a lantern tattoo – in the Traditional/Old School or New Traditional styles– stands for the eternal spiritual flame that burns in the temple of our heart and soul.
Only when we are prepared to reflect on the lessons life gives us on a daily basis and only when we are ready to put them into practice, can we say that we truly merit a tattoo like this. Only then can our lantern tattoo acquire its full iconographic value.
Getting a tattoo of a lantrn at a certain point in our lives might mean that in some way we have reached the essential luminosity and know where we have been so far and where it we we are going.
Illumination, in any case, means the end of wandering without any clear destination along the myriad paths of life and death. And a lantern in ink is no less than a tribute to our intelligence and spirituality. A solemn way of announcing to the world that we have finally found a path to follow. And in our own small way, we are ready to change the world for the better.
