(Source: the-deathof-me)
meet chino the sailor, the blue harbor pit bull who was born with a clef lip. he has a crooked nose and a snaggle tooth and is absolutely adorable.
this tattoo is on Sarah, who is chinos mom and if i had the chance i would totally steal him for myself because he is the cutest dog ive ever seen (next to my own)
helenadarling.tumblr.com
halifax nova scotia
(Source: creamthejeans)
Ink & Fur
(Source: ruggedlyhandsome)
Woad: The Blue Hue Of Ancient Europe ~
Grown in Europe since the Stone Age, the plant Isatis tinctoria - from which the famous blue essence known as Woad is extracted - is native to the Mediterranean, potentially having originated in the region of the Middle East, from where it spread throughout Europe. As early as the Neolithic age, 5 to 10,000 years ago, woad seeds were stored for future use. Blue-coloured bast fibre, presumed to be linen or hemp dyed with woad, was found in the French cave of l’Adaouste at Bouches-du-Rhône.
Blue-dyed textiles were found in the Hallstatt chieftain burial sites of Hochdorf and Hohmichele, Bavaria (800 to 400 BC). The earliest recorded appearance of woad in the British Isles was at an excavation at Dragonby (1st century B.C. and A.D.), South Humberside, from an Iron Age pit.
Long associated with East Anglia, it has been said that when Julius Caesar’s army invaded Britain in 55 B.C., the Romans saw Picts painted blue with woad. There is controversy regarding this claim, as it is unlikely that the Roman army, which was mainly in the south, actually came across any Pictish tribes or individuals, who lived in the north of Scotland. What Caesar wrote was “Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem”. He was likely referring to a larger British context, not singularly to the Picts. In latin, “vitro” translates to both the term woad and to a type of blue glass that was popular among the Romans.
Notably, warrior queen Boudicca and the Celtic Iceni tribe are believed by many scholars to have used woad to colour their faces before going into battle. Further north, as stated, the Picts are thought to have also gained notoriety for their body painting and potential tattooing with the blue dye. Woad was also well-known as an antiseptic and it may have been used to help heal battle wounds. Not all historians agree on these notions.
Woad was not only used for body painting/marking or tattooing but also for textile dyes and illustrative inks and pigments. The illuminists of the Lindisfarne Gospels (late 7th/early 8th century) and the Book of Kells used a woad-based mixture for the blue colorations of these creations.
Evidence for use of woad plants were found in Viking age York (9th/10th century) and in other Norse regions. An Iron Age grave (circa 1st century AD) at Loenne Heath (Lønne Hede), close to Varde, Denmark, was found to contain a young child wearing a blue garment and Finnish graves from the 8th to 11th centuries show a predominance of garments dyed blue with woad. A box of woad seeds were also included in the 9th century (835 AD) Oseberg royal ship burial in Norway.
Woad was grown as a field crop and picked in its first year. The leaves were chopped up into a paste by a horse-driven mill and then made into balls by hand. These were left to dry in special drying sheds for about four weeks until they became hard like wood. The dried balls were broken up into a powder, sprinkled with waterand urine or potash then allowed to ferment thus forming a paste which was then used for the various purposes…
Brooklyn Teen Gang, The Jokers c. 1959 (viavRetronaut)
