My New Tattoo

I’m a sucker for a good meaningful tattoo, and my newest one is my most favourite yet. Although all of my tattoos have some kind of meaning, I think this one has had the most thought. 

The fall of Icarus is known as the tale of a son who disobeyed his father’s orders by flying too close to the sun and meeting his demise from the melting of his wings. Often the story is portrayed as a cautionary tale about pride and over ambitiousness having negative consequences, but I feel like there’s more to the story. 

The Greek myth goes, that Icarus' father Daedalus was sent to prison by the king out of fear of betrayal. Icarus was sent with him as a conspirator and so they were both trapped in a labyrinth of a tower, with very limited access to sunlight. Eventually Daedalus constructed a plan to escape by fashioning wings out of candle wax, bed sheets, feathers from their beds and the leather straps of their shoes. Upon escaping, Icarus’ father warned him not to fly too close to the sun as they would melt and he would fall. 

The period of their imprisonment has never been specified, but I imagine it would have been quite a while without sunlight. Although the story is supposed to be one about hubris, I can’t help but imagine the overwhelming emotions that Icarus must have felt when he finally had that freedom. Feeling sunlight on his skin for the first time in who knows how long? I like to think that instead of it being vanity or over-confidence that caused Icarus to defy his father’s instructions, it was the staggering emotions that came with liberation. 

In all, the tattoo has two meanings to me. 

1. Starving people will eat anything. People who have been denied something they need for a long time, will take all that they can get. Often, people will accept the love they think they deserve because they’ve been starved of it their whole lives. 

   
   

2. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Just because a rumour has been circulated a thousand times, doesn’t always make it true. A reminder that just because certain people may have a particular reputation, I will base my opinion from my own experience, not the words of others.