Max'inux: Tattoo Concept

Inspired by an awesome woman named Trish who works in BC, keeping the orcas safe. She got her own tattoo when I was up there, and she had drawn it herself and it was beautiful.

A few years ago, I came up with a conceptual tattoo much like this, although the whales were a simple Yin and Yang symbol. It evolved after the BC trip (what's nice is that Yin and Yang are actually related to compass directions, which I didn't know: North and South are Yin and Yang, respectively, with East and West being transitions).

This symbolizes a lot to me. The importance of explorations, valuing your surroundings, and relishing experience are in the compass rose. The orcas symbolize familial closeness, social bonds, honoring friendships, etc, which are very important to me. They're also just an important part of my life. The implied Yin and Yang symbol represents finding a balance, and serves as a reminder to look at difficult situations as part of the course of things, and to not get my emotions too out of whack.

So yeah. I have no intention of getting this anytime soon...if ever . But if I ever do get a tattoo, this is probably what I'll go for--I just want to make sure that my life goes in a definitely whale-related direction first. But this will always be in some back drawer in my mind, waiting if I ever want to put it to use. It will need some technical revamping--I'd like to actually use a compass for the circle, get the angles on the compass rose exactly right, make it truly symmetrical, etc--but it's a start.

And, oh yeah--Max'inux means orca in the language of--get ready for this--the Kwakwaka'wakw people. The language is Kwak'wala, and the people are the native, or First Nations, people of the Vancouver Island, British Columbia area. It's my absolute favorite word. My second favorite, of course, is Kwakwaka'wakw. Trish was the one who told it to me.