Last week outside of Penn Station, I spotted this not-so-itsy-bitsy spider crawling across the left side of Alexandra's back.
Turns out the spider, along with Alexandra, were visiting New York from Switzerland. Alexandra had limited English, but did impart to me that she "had always wanted something like that" as a tattoo, and that she doesn't regret it one bit.
The tattoo artist was named Stephan, who worked in a shop whose name she can't recall in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Thanks to Alexandra for sharing her spidery tattoo with us here and giving us our first Swiss-inked contribution to Tattoosday!
Most cultural traditions perpetuate the image of the spider as a treacherous creature that cannot be trusted. It sits on its web, waiting to entrap prey, and may even kill its own spouse, as in the case of the BLACK WIDOW. By and large, this is the symbolism on which most tattoo artwork of spiders is based. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, such as in West Africa, where there are many amazing tales of the spider as a hero and champion of mankind, a cunning trickster who gives mankind corn and the hoe. According to the Greeks, the young girl Arachne was so gifted at the art of weaving that she dared to challenge the goddess Athena to a contest. While Athena wove majestic portraits of the gods and their punishments of mortals, Arachne wove the loves of the male gods for mortal women. In response Athena flew into a rage and struck Arachne with her shuttle. Arachne tried to hang herself but Athena saved her and changed her into a spider, ever dangling at the end of her thread. Arachne's was the fate to which humans were doomed if they dared to challenge a god.
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