Angel's Tattoo
Ever wonder what that little guy is on Angel's back? I mean we've only seen him a couple of times and every time it wasn't exactly still, so for all you've people that have spent sleepless nights wondering I've decided to solve this little mystery for you. Okay so you haven't spent sleepless nights and if you really wanted to know you could have just looked it up on the internet or something, but I've done it for you. So read on if you want to know.
Okay, this is a picture of the infamous tattoo making it's star appearance on Angel's back:
And here is another picture of it, except this is a drawing and not on Angel's back(sorry):
Well that little guy up there is called a griffin and I've put together a little history of him, just in case you're really interested. So here goes...
The griffin is a creature of myth. There are many stories of it's origin, but in most stories
it always looks the same. The face, beak, talons, and wings of the eagle and the body of the lion
are it's common characteristics. Some believe it is only the female who has wings and there are
also some traditions where it is shown with a long snake-like tale, this usually signifies evil. Their
nests were usually made of gold and their eggs look like agates. They were also thought to hide
treasures in these nests because of their strength and powerful sight. One of the most
commonly guarded treasures were emeralds which gives it association with the Holy Grail (an
emerald carved to hold the wine at the Last Supper and supposed to have magical powers).
Other treasures said to be guarded by the griffins were the Tree of Life, knowledge, and the
roads to salvation. Greeks and Romans even used griffin images to guard their tombs.
The griffin symbolized many things. Because of the combination of lion and eagle it was
considered the king of birds and lord of the air united with the king of beasts and lord of the
earth. It was associated with many gods and goddesses such as Apollo who was said to have
ridden one. Also the griffin was an embodiment of Nemesis, the goddess of retribution.
Commonly the griffin was associated with Jesus Christ because of it's dual nature. The eagle
part symbolized Christ's divinity and His humanity was symbolized by the lion half.
The griffin represented poetic and spiritual inspiration because of it could fly like an
eagle and also courage in the struggle against sin and evil because of it's lion half. The
combination of the two animals shows that one must combine strength and intelligence. They
are a symbol of the sun, wisdom, vengeance, strength, salvation, and vigilance.
Some people thought of the griffin as an evil animal who stole people's souls. They saw
the combination as perverse, crippling the griffin by depriving it the ability to fly like the eagle or
walk proudly like the lion. They even created a sort of griffin who had the tail of a dragon and
always represented evil. This they called the griffin-dragon.
So that's it. Now you know all about the griffin. I guess you could consider yourself an expert on Angel's back if you really want to. There are links in my links section(obviously that's where they'd be) to the pages where I got this information. You can visit and see if there's anything I missed. Well hope you enjoyed the little lesson.
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