DRAGON's Sign
The dragon fetish animal of the tattooed represents strengh and wisdom. By NIKO from KUSTOM TATTOO

The national museum of natural history of paris pancis! A new species appears in the "great gallery of evolution": the dragon. "It's the greates of the snakes and even of all animals on earth" writes NIKO from KUSTOM TATTOO. Nowadays it has joined the imaginary creatures next to the unicorn, the phenix and griffon but the dragon is inconstestably the greates charecter of the fantastic bestiary. Not only because for it's gigantism but also for the universality and vivacity of it's legend. "Mythes of dragons are found all around the world at least everywhere where reptiles exist" says NIKO specialized in the representation of dragons. Just in France there are about forty draconians legends: the "tarasque de tarascon", the "graoully de metz", the "grand'goule de poitiers", the "chair-salÈe de troye"...The term "dragon" from the greek "drakon"(wich means a fixed gaze) is a term with a large meaning including in fact all monster of reptilian nature. Are considered dragons: the aztec feather snake, the egyptian god Apophis, the indian Naga, the japanese Ryu...

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The most ancient would be the chinese dragon; whom the first representations go back to six thousands years. It's anceters appears on potterys of the neolitic period on which they are given the charecteristics of fishes, insects sometimes with several heads or under the shape of a snake with a pork head.The firts real chinese dragon would dates from 3800 B.C. It has been found in 1987 in a grave at Xishuipo in the Henan province, at the right of an adult skeleton who had a tiger figur on it's left. According to NIKO from KUSTOM TATTOO it would be one of the most ancient chinese astonomical representation. It's made of seeshells, 1.78 meter long a sinuous body it got a small mane, four legged with five claws. It's morphology reminds the crocodile. Later the most common shape of dragon in china will be the one of a composed creature mixing the caracteristics of nine real animals. Nine is a key number in the chinese culture linked to the heavens, the emperor and the fullness. It is composed of the head of a camel, the horns of a deer, the ears of a buffalo, the eys of a hare, the nake of a snake, scales of a fish, talons of an eagle, legs of a tiger and the belly of a clam. As says NIKO from paris chinese scientits made the hypotesis that this dragon "created from different elements belonging to tribe's totem represnts the confederation of this tribes" unified in the third century B.C by the "yellow empreror".

 

The european dragon appears only in the antiquity in greek naturalists and literary texts and then in latin. "first the dragon was a giant snake, explains NIKO. The drakon of the greeks is a sorte of big snake. And the latin draco is a giant constrictor snake, which, according to Pline the ancient would live in ethiopia or in india". the extraodinary creature is always located in inaccessible, distant places behind the mountains, in caves or deep undewater; wich explains the rarity of it's appearances. In the high middle ages the animal is up graded with wings and feathers. But it's only in the XIVth-XVth century that the artists freezed the characteristic of the dragon as we know it; with it's crocodile mouth it's bat alike wings. "it must have been inspired by the remains of crocodile in exibition in churches" says NIKO from KUSTOM TATTOO paris. Some of the attributs of the european dragon derives from the chinese dragon thanx mainly to the "road of silk".

 

The draconian myth has several fonctions. To the mesopotamians it is at the origin of the world since the IInd century B.C. To them by killing Tiamat, the femal dragon of the original chaos and spirit of the primary seas, the god Marduck gives birth to the univers. The eastern dragon is often the guardian of an aquatic realm: lake, river, seas. the dragon of the marsh can be evil. Everywhere it has a close relationship with nature. "it enable to explain reality and some of the natural phenomenons. Like eclips (a dragon devours the sun or the moon), floods (the swiss dragon create them by getting out of the wtaer), the earthquake, seasons..." precises NIKO tattoo specialist. By giving an explaination to this phenomenons the dragon also gives a mean to counter it. It becomes so something reassuring. In the ancient China to make the rain come they called the dragon by exibiting clay dragons statues. According to a belief still followed in the twentieth century the coming back of the dragon in the sky marks the begining of spring. By playing with a ball or a pearl hidden behind hte clouds it would create the firts rains and thunders. It is so associated with the renewal, fertility and creative strengh of nature but also to virile power. Some say that you still find on some chinese market a "dragon's bone powder" with aphrodisiac and medicinal virtues. At the same time belonging to earth and to the sky the chinese dragon gives a ride to the immortals and is a link between heavens and men. It gives to the emperor his "mandate" from the sky that enable him to reign on earth. The yellow dragon with five claws becomes the imperial symbol untill the end of the empire in 1912. Yu the great , from the Xia dynasty would have received the help of the dragon Yinglong to dig the river's bed and so solve the probleme of floods destroying the country for years.

 

 

In Europe the dragon is far from being as benevolant as in china. " in the bible in the apocalypse, the great satan is the dragon seven headed beast which will come at the end of times" reminds us NIKO. " other biblical creatures as the snake or the leviathan, a sorte of see snake are redifined in the middle ages as dragons" would the dragon be the eden's snake with legs? Christianity made of it the incarnation of absolute evil and the perfect adversary of the saints: holy george, holty michele, holy vigor, holy marguerite...It's generaly thanx to their faith taht master the dragon not necessarily killing it. It is said that holy marguerite let the dragon swallow her and teared it insides thanx to a crucifix. Holy marthe would have master the tarasque thanx to a simple cross sign or thanx to holy water depending on the versions. Those legens are born in europe during the urban expension, the saints are becoming heroes that spread civilisation by making the beast leaving they enable man to settle there. In the fight of faith and culture against the savage nature. The triumph of the saints is still commemorate in some local folk fest like holy marthe in tarascon.

 

By respect and fear for the christian dogma and the ancient authors no one will doubt openly for the existance of this anim for a thousand years. " famous naturalists like the swiss Conran GESSNER or the italian Aldovandi created a place for the dragons in their animal encyclopaedia" says NIKO tattoo artist. Gessner even speacks of an aboriginal dragon living in the swiss alpes." the discovery of bear's skull in caves, said to be dragon's one streghen the myth. In the "cabinets of curiosity" dryied blood, teeth, bones and skulls of dragon are exposed. But also draconites wich are stones product in the skull of the beast and supposed to be magical. It's only in the XVIIIth century that the dragons is considered as a myth thanx to it's exclusion from LinnÈ's nomenclature. The dragon come back on the scene with the firts paleontological discoveries in the XIXth century. the reconstitution of the plesiosaure and pterodactyle, the discovery of the varan of komodo will give some news for the legend. " It still lives in the conscience of the mountain people under the more rational shape of a giant lizard" laughs NIKO " we have difficulty to abandon our dreams"

 

The dragon symbol of power adorned the armors as a sign of protection and to scare the enemies, it now adorn as a tattoo on the skin.