Gauntlet Holding Chalice

In this custom medieval blackwork you can see a depiction of a Knight Templar gauntlet holding a chalice, which in this case represents the Holy Grail, with the blood of Christ spilling out. An order which was founded to protect Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land and fight in the Crusades, but theories suggest they had an agenda of their own, with hidden goals and harboring secret knowledge. Later legends speak of the Knights Templar pursuing and finding the Holy Grail, which is most commonly depicted as the chalice used by Jesus in the Last Supper; which I used in this composition to depict their “thirst for a higher knowledge”.

This tattoo was executed in 2 consecutive days, firstly drawing a rough composition on the stomach of the client, so to carefully go around the belly button, and perfectly fitting the piece around other tattoos. Then carefully tattooing one section of the design the first day, and another section the second, so the passing over the same skin on day 2 was minimal.