Story: A poor woman longed for a child. One day, she saw a little snake in the forest and said that even snakes had children; the little snake offered to be hers. The woman and her husband raised the snake. When it was grown, it wanted to marry, and not to another snake but to the king’s daughter. The father went to ask, and the king said that the snake should have her if he could turn all the fruit in the orchard into gold. The snake told his father to gather up all the pits he could find and sow them in the orchard; when they sprang up, all the fruits were gold.
The king then demanded that the walls and paths of his palace be turned to precious stones; the snake had his father gathered up broken crockery and threw it at the walls and paths, which transformed them, making them glitter with the many coloured gems.
The king then demanded that the castle be turned to gold; the snake had his father rub the walls with a herb, which transformed them.
The king told his daughter, Grannonia, he had tried to put off this suitor but failed. Grannonia said that she would obey him. The snake came in a car of gold, drawn by elephants; everyone else ran off in fright, but Grannonia stood her ground. The snake took her into a room, where he shed his skin and became a handsome young man. The king, fearing that his daughter was being eaten, looked through the keyhole, and seeing this, grabbed the skin and burned it. The youth exclaimed that the king was a fool, turned into a dove, and flew off.
Grannonia set out in search of him. She met a fox and traveled with him. In the morning as the princess remarked on the wondrous sounds of the birdsongs, the fox told her the birdsong would be even better if she knew what the birds were saying: that a prince had been cursed to take a snake’s form for seven years, that near the end of the time, he had fallen in love with and married a princess, but that his snake skin had been burned, and he had struck his head while he fled, and was now in the care of doctors. The fox then told her that the blood of the birds would cure him, and he caught them for her. Then he told her that his blood was also needed; she persuaded him to go with her and killed him.
She went to her husband’s father and promised to cure the prince if he would marry her; the king agreed and she cured him. The prince refused because he had already pledged himself to another woman. The princess, pleased, revealed that she was that woman and they married.
Tattoo Idea
A snake curled around the wrist, the snake mid shed and three teardrop shaped gems or a crown at its head
Story: there was a princess named Maid Maleen who fell in love with a prince, but her father refused his suit. When Maid Maleen said she would marry no other, the king had her and her maidservant locked up in tower, with food that would be enough to feed them for seven years.
After seven long years, the food eventually ran out, but no one came to release them or deliver more food. The princess and her maidservant then decided to escape from the tower using a simple knife. When they finally managed to break free of the tower, they found the kingdom destroyed and the king long since gone.
Tattoo idea: Maid Maleen breaking through the brick to find her destroyed kingdom (which can be conveyed by over grown withered/dead vines)
When the Little Mermaid’s turn comes, she rises up to the surface, watches a birthday celebration being held on a ship in honor of a handsome prince, and falls in love with him from a safe distance. Then a violent storm hits, sinking the ship, and the Little Mermaid saves the prince from drowning. She delivers him unconscious to the shore near a temple. Here, the Little Mermaid waits until a young woman from the temple and her ladies in waiting find him. To her dismay, the prince never sees the Little Mermaid or even realizes that it was she who had originally saved his life.
The Little Mermaid becomes melancholy and asks her grandmother if humans can live forever. The grandmother explains that humans have a much shorter lifespan than a mermaid’s 300 years but that they have an eternal soul that lives on in heaven, while mermaids turn to sea foam at death and cease to exist. The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, visits the Sea Witch who lives in a dangerous part of the ocean. The witch willingly helps her by selling her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her beautiful voice, as the Little Mermaid has the most enchanting voice in the entire world. The witch warns the Little Mermaid that once she becomes a human, she will never be able to return to the sea. Consuming the potion will make her feel as if a sword is being passed through her body, yet when she recovers, she will have two human legs and will be able to dance like no human has ever danced before. However, she will constantly feel as if she is walking on sharp knives. In addition, she will obtain a soul only if she wins the love of the prince and marries him, for then a part of his soul will flow into her. Otherwise, at dawn on the first day after he marries someone else, the Little Mermaid will die with a broken heart and dissolve into sea foam upon the waves.
After she agrees to the arrangement, the Little Mermaid swims up to the surface near the prince’s castle and drinks the potion. The liquid feels like a sword piercing through her body and she passes out on the shore, naked. She is found by the prince, who is mesmerized by her beauty and grace, even though she is mute. Most of all, he likes to see her dance, and she dances for him despite suffering excruciating pain with every step. Soon, the Little Mermaid becomes the prince’s favorite companion and accompanies him on many of his outings but he does not fall in love with her at all. When the prince’s parents encouraged their son to marry the neighboring princess in an arranged marriage, the prince tells the Little Mermaid he will not because he does not love the princess. He goes on to say he can only love the young woman from the temple, who he believes rescued him. It turns out that the princess from the neighboring kingdom was the temple woman, as she was sent to the temple for her education. The prince declares his love for her, and the royal wedding is announced at once.
The mermaid sisters give the knife to The Little Mermaid.
The prince and princess celebrate their new marriage aboard a wedding ship, and the Little Mermaid’s heart breaks. She thinks of all that she has sacrificed and of all the pain she has endured for the prince. She despairs, thinking of the death that awaits her, but before dawn, her sisters rise out of the water and bring her a dagger that the Sea Witch has given them in exchange for their long, beautiful hair. If the Little Mermaid kills the prince and lets his blood drip on her feet, she will become a mermaid once more, all her suffering will end, and she will live out her full life in the ocean with her family. However, the Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his new wife, and she throws the dagger and herself off the ship into the water just as dawn breaks. Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warm sun and discovers that she has turned into a luminous and ethereal earthbound spirit, a daughter of the air. As the Little Mermaid ascends into the atmosphere, she is greeted by other daughters, who tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to obtain an immortal soul. Because of her selflessness, she is given the chance to earn her own soul by doing good deeds for mankind for 300 years, and will one day rise up into Heaven.
Tattoo idea: a dagger with a blood swirling in water pattern at the tip of the blade, the blood weaving into the mermaids hair and the mermaid turning to sea foam
The tattoo design I commissioned turned out so well. No, you do not have permission to use this exact image for your tattoo, but you can use the concept
The Folk of the Air/ How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories Tattoo
Summary of first book: Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
Story: When a young woman, usually called Janet or Margaret, goes to Carterhaugh and plucks a double rose, Tam appears and asks her why she has come without his leave and taken what is his. She states that she owns Carterhaugh because her father has given it to her.
In most variants, Janet then goes home and discovers that she is pregnant; some variants pick up the story at this point. When asked about her condition, she declares that her baby’s father is an elf whom she will not forsake. In some versions, she is informed of a herb that will induce abortion; in all the variants, when she returns to Carterhaugh and picks a plant, either the same roses as on her earlier visit or the herb, Tam reappears and challenges her action.
She asks him whether he was ever human, either after that reappearance or, in some versions, immediately after their first meeting resulted in her pregnancy. He reveals that he was a mortal man, who, falling from his horse, was caught and captured by the Queen of Fairies. Every seven years, the fairies give one of their people as a teind (tithe) to Hell and Tam fears he will become the tithe that night, which is Hallowe'en. He is to ride as part of a company of elven knights. Janet will recognise him by the white horse upon which he rides and by other signs. He instructs her to rescue him by pulling him down from the white horse, so Janet “catches” him this time, and holds him tightly. He warns her that the fairies will attempt to make her drop him by turning him into all manner of beasts (see Proteus), but that he will do her no harm. When he is finally turned into a burning coal, she is to throw him into a well, whereupon he will reappear as a naked man, and she must hide him. Janet does as she is asked and wins her knight. The Queen of Fairies is angry but acknowledges defeat.
Story: In Japanese folklore there is a story of the crane wife. One day a man saves an injured crane while he is out walking. Soon afterwards he meets a beautiful woman and they get married. She is able to weave beautiful cloth each night which they sell at the market to make money. The man’s wife makes him promise not to look at her while she works and each night she shuts herself away in a room.
As time passes, the man notices that she is looking increasingly unwell. One night he decides to take a peek into her weaving room and to his surprise, he discovers that she is actually the grateful crane in disguise, plucking out her feathers each night to weave into the beautiful cloth. Because he has now seen her she can no longer stay with him and so flies off leaving him heartbroken.
Story: A noble mouse named Despereaux saves a princess named Princess Pea.
Book I: A Mouse Is Born
A small, sickly mouse named Despereaux Tilling is born in a castle with his eyes open (most mice are born blind). Despereaux, unlike other mice, spends much time reading , and particularly enjoys a book about a knight saving a princess and living happily ever after. One day while reading, he hears music that sounds like honey. He follows the sound, which leads him to Princess Pea and King Philip. He sits at the king’s feet to hear the music, falls in love with the princess, and speaks to her. The king leads the mouse away because mice are related to rats, who were outlawed some years ago. Furlough Tilling, Despereaux’s brother, sees this, and tells his father, Lester. Lester calls the mouse council as Furlough goes to collect Despereaux. The mouse council orders Despereaux to be sent to the dungeon to die, because talking to a human is forbidden. When Despereaux goes into the dungeon, he meets Gregory, the jailer, who saves him because Despereaux tells him a nice story.
Book II: Chiaroscuro
Book II centers around a rat named Roscuro who loved the light and was less vicious and cunning than the other rats. He decided to go into the light. He climbed onto a chandelier, above a banquet. However, he fell into the queen’s soup, and the queen, whose habit was to state the obvious, said, “There’s a rat in my soup,” before dying. The princess, now hostile to Roscuro, ordered him to leave. Roscuro, angry, desired revenge against the princess. The king, upset, banned the use of spoons, soup, bowls, and rats.
Book III: The Tale of Miggery Sow
Many years before Despereaux and Roscuro were born. A six-year-old girl named Miggery “Mig” Sow witnesses the death of her ill mother. Afterward, Mig is sold to work by her father for some cigarettes, a hen, and a red tablecloth to a man Mig calls Uncle. Uncle often clouts Mig’s ears, leaving her partially deaf. Mig decides, upon seeing the princess pass by on a horse, that she wants to be a princess. Mig is then sent to work in the castle by the King’s soldiers, who tell “Uncle” that no human being is allowed to own another. In the castle, she gains a lot of weight. Only her head stayed small. Mig’s main job is to go down to the dungeons to deliver Gregory the jailer his meal and, while there, she meets Roscuro and confesses to him that her greatest wish is to become a princess. Gregory gives her a handkerchief, Despereaux in it, and returns to the castle. Roscuro convinces Mig that if she helps him kidnap Princess Pea, he’ll make her a servant girl so Miggery Sow can become a princess.
Book IV: Recalled to the Light
Despereaux escapes the dungeons on a tray of Gregory’s that Mig brings back to the kitchen, where he hears her conversation with Roscuro. However, Despereaux is soon discovered by Mig and Cook. Cook, as a mouse-hating woman, orders Mig to kill Despereaux. She explains to Mig that her philosophy with mice is “kill ‘em, even if they’re already dead.” When Despereaux is attempting to flee, Mig chops off his tail with a knife so that she can tell Cook that she got a part of the “mercy”. Despereaux spends the night in pain, sleeping on a sack of flour. He dreams of the castle’s knights in shining armor, darkness, and light. However, when the knight removes the helmet, the shining armor is empty. Despereaux begins to doubt “happily ever after” and everything he has read and starts to weep. Meanwhile, Roscuro leads Mig to Princess Pea’s room with a knife in one hand and a candle in the other to lead Princess Pea to the dungeon.
The next morning, the castle is in a panic over the missing princess. Guards are sent to search the dungeon, only to find Gregory dead from terror. He was lost in the dark mazes because Roscuro has chewed the rope which secures him to the dungeon entrance. Despereaux is seen by the mouse council, who mistook him for a ghost because he is covered in flour from sleeping on the flour sack. Despereaux forgives his father, upon the father’s request, for sentencing him to the dungeon, before mocking the rest of the council. Despereaux goes on to see the King. Despereaux tells the King that he knows that Pea is in the dungeon, but the King refuses to believe him because Despereaux is related distantly to the rats.
Despereaux then goes to Hovis, the thread master. Hovis gives him an entire spool of red thread and a sewing needle to serve as a sword for his quest to the dungeons. On his way, he runs into Cook, who has grown so anxious from Pea’s disappearance she has resorted to breaking the law and making soup. Instead of attacking Despereaux, she offers him some soup before seeing him off. Mig, meanwhile, learns that Roscuro tricked her into helping him kidnap Pea and that she will never be a princess. Roscuro plans for Pea to remain locked in the dungeons so that he can marvel over her brightly colored dress, but Despereaux arrives to save Pea, and Mig chops Roscuro’s tail off with the knife when he refuses to show them the way back. However, many rats arrive on the scene because they followed the smell of Despereaux, and the soup he recently ate. Despereaux threatens to kill Roscuro with the sewing needle. Roscuro, catching a whiff of the soup left on Despereaux’s whiskers, realizes he does not truly want to hurt anyone and begins crying. Pea offers that if Roscuro lets her go, she will treat him with some soup. Roscuro agrees. Botticelli and the other rats are so disgusted by the happiness of all that is happening that they return to the darkness.
Despereaux and Pea become close friends. Because even in this strange world, a mouse and princess can not marry. Roscuro is allowed access into the upstairs of the castle, and reunites Mig’s father, a prisoner in the dungeons, with his daughter. Mig’s father promises that he loves Mig and will never leave her. But before this, however, Roscuro, Mig, the King, Pea, and Despereaux all get together for soup, as Despereaux’s friend Hovis, his parents, and his brother watch in amazement behind the scenes.
Tattoo idea
The cover art of Desperaux with his thread and needle with the words: “stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell a story. Make some light.” At the bottom
Story: Nadya’s town is being tormented by the mysterious disappearances of local women. The incidents arise after reported missing girls from nearby towns. This is followed closely by a harsh winter that forces Nadya’s father to sell his modes of transportation in order to support his family.
Soon after the third local disappearance, Nadya begins to suspect Karina, a local baker, of being a witch and luring the girls into the woods. Karina marries Nadya’s father, Maxim, and begins to torment her. She starves Nadya, locks her in her room, steals the food she finds, and prevents her father from showing her affection. Nadya runs away and lives with a kind witch named Magda in the woods. The witch turns her into a raven temporarily, at her request, so that she might spy upon Karina.
Nadya flies home the following spring and is sent with a gingerbread creation made in her image. The ginger girl approaches her home and meets with Maxim and Karina. Karina responds sadly, stroking the girl’s cheek and excuses herself to visit a friend. Maxim hugs his daughter and begins to kiss her, apologizing desperately all the while. He begins to eat the ginger girl, whom he believes is his daughter, and gorges himself on her flesh. He is found dead in the morning and is convicted for the deaths of the other girls. Nadya realizes that Karina had been sacrificing herself to hold Maxim’s attention, allowing Nadya to escape.
Her father is buried without a religious ceremony, and Nadya becomes a powerful witch under the tutelage of Magda, the kind witch in the woods.
Tattoo Idea
Nadya at a large cauldron with a raven on her shoulder and missing 2 fingers, the ginger girl in the cauldron mirroring Nadya, the cauldron bubbling over with candy, pastries, ribbons, mushrooms, a nute, spider, bones, eyeballs, and nadya’s missing fingers
Story: In the woods near Polvost, Ravka, a litter of foxes was born. Koja was the runt of the litter, a small, ugly fox who was nearly eaten by his mother. By appealing to her vanity, he convinced her to let him live—the first time Koja escaped a trap using his clever words. Outside his den, Koja was cornered by a pack of hounds, and claimed to be a wish-granting fox in order to push the hounds into fighting each other so that he could escape.
When Koja stepped into a farmer’s trap, he called out to the bloodthirsty black bear Ivan Gostov. The bear picked up Koja’s trap with the intention of eating him, but Koja spoke to the fleas on the bear. Koja would allow the fleas to live on him for one year, if they all bit Ivan Gostov. In his pain, the black bear dropped Koja’s trap, allowing the fox to run to safety. With the fleas, Koja became uglier and smelled so terrible that only the nightingale Lula would visit him. After a year with the fleas, Koja stole kvas and a chicken from the farmer and brought them to Ivan Gostov. He convinced the bear that Koja would be better company than a meal, and the fox and bear became friends.
One winter, Ivan Gostov disappeared. Koja sent Lula to investigate the town and she discovered that the legendary hunter Lev Jurek had arrived in Polvost. Jurek was known for traveling from village to village, emptying the woods of fauna and never making a sound nor leaving tracks. Concerned for the lives of the forest animals, Koja and Lula went into town and observed Jurek and his sister, Sofiya, in their daily routines. Jurek held parties and boasted of his kills; Sofiya sat by the fire and sewed her patchwork cloak of animal furs.
Koja followed Sofiya on her regular journey across the valley to the old widows’ home. At a clearing, the girl stopped and began to cry, and Koja told her a funny story to cheer her up. On Sofiya’s next trip to bring food to the widows, Koja told her stories of his cleverness and Sofiya gave him cheese. The next day, Sofiya told Koja about her brother. Koja needed to know how Jurek could hunt so silently in the forest, and Sofiya told him that her brother carried a charm from a witch.
Koja gathered dropwort leaves to ensure Jurek would remain asleep while Sofiya stole his magic charm. He encouraged the other animals not to leave, telling them that the hunter would soon be gone from their woods. He gave Sofiya the dropwort and the next day, she returned with the charm. Koja and Sofiya shared wine and food, and the fox fell asleep in her lap. Sofiya began to cut off Koja’s coat with her knife, revealing that she, not her brother, was the silent hunter. She lured the animals into her trap, offering companionship or whatever the animals sought. Dying, Koja cried out; Lula heard his call and pecked out Sofiya’s eyes, blinding her.
After two days, a blind Sofiya returned to her brother, but she could no longer lure animals into her traps. Jurek, no longer living in fear of his sister, became a woodcutter and married. His wife was discomfited by his sister, so Jurek sent Sofiya to live at the old widows’ house. Koja and Lula made a quiet life together, and Koja learned to be more careful when dealing with humans and traps.
Tattoo Idea:
Koja and Lula (the fox and Nightingale) huddled together with the words: “the trap is loneliness” beneath them
Story: A woman yearning for a child asks a witch for advice, and is presented with a barley which she is told to go home and plant (in the first English translation of 1847 by Mary Howitt, the tale opens with a beggar woman giving a peasant’s wife a barleycorn in exchange for food). After the barleycorn is planted and sprouts, a tiny girl named Thumbelina (Tommelise) emerges from its flower.
One night, Thumbelina, asleep in her walnut-shell cradle, is carried off by a toad who wants her as a bride for her son. With the help of friendly fish and a butterfly, Thumbelina escapes the toad and her son, and drifts on a lily pad until captured by a stag beetle who later discards her when his friends reject her company.
Thumbelina tries to protect herself from the elements. When winter comes, she is in desperate straits. She is finally given shelter by an old field mouse and tends her dwelling in gratitude. Thumbelina sees a swallow who is injured while visiting a mole, a neighbor of the field mouse. She meets the swallow one night and finds out what happened to him. She keeps on visiting the swallow during midnight without telling the field mouse and tries to help him gain strength and she frequently spends time with him singing songs and telling him stories and listening to his stories in the winter until spring arrives. The swallow, after becoming healthy, promises that he would come to that spot again and flies away saying goodbye to Thumbelina.
At the end of winter, the mouse suggests Thumbelina marry the mole, but Thumbelina finds the prospect of being married to such a creature repulsive because he spends all his days underground and never sees the sun or sky even though he is impressive with his knowledge of ancient history and lots of other topics. The field mouse keeps pushing Thumbelina into the marriage, insisting the mole is a good match for her. Eventually Thumbelina sees little choice but to agree, but cannot bear the thought of the mole keeping her underground and never seeing the sun.
However, at the last minute, Thumbelina escapes the situation by fleeing to a far land with the swallow. In a sunny field of flowers, Thumbelina meets a tiny flower-fairy prince just her size and to her liking, and they wed. She receives a pair of wings to accompany her husband on his travels from flower to flower, and a new name, Maia. In the end, the swallow is heartbroken once Thumbelina marries the flower-fairy prince, and flies off eventually arriving at a small house. There, he tells Thumbelina’s story to a man who is implied to be Andersen himself, who chronicles the story in a book
Tattoo Idea
A bloomed tulip with a cracked walnut inside and (a girl with) fairy wings hovering over the flower
Twelve princesses sleep in twelve beds in the same room. Every night, their doors are securely locked by their father. But in the morning, their dancing shoes are found to be worn through as if they had been dancing all night. The king, perplexed, asks his daughters to explain, but they refuse. The king then promises his kingdom and each daughter to any man who can discover the princesses’ midnight secret within three days and three nights, but those who fail within the set time limit will be sentenced to death.
An old soldier returned from war comes to the king’s call after several princes have failed in the attempt. Whilst traveling through a wood he comes upon an old woman, who gives him an enchanted cloak that he can use to observe the king’s unaware daughters and tells him not to eat or drink anything given to him in the evening by any of the princesses and to pretend to be fast asleep until they leave.
The soldier is well received at the palace just as the others had been and indeed, in the evening, the princess royal (the eldest daughter) comes to his chamber and offers him a cup of wine. The soldier, remembering the old woman’s advice, secretly throws it away and begins to snore loudly as if asleep.
The twelve princesses, assured that the soldier is asleep, dress themselves in fine dancing gowns and escape from their room by a trap door in the floor. The soldier, seeing this, puts on his magic cloak and follows them. He steps on the gown of the youngest princess, whose cry of alarm to her sisters is rebuffed by the eldest. The passageway leads them to three groves of trees; the first having leaves of silver, the second of gold, and the third of glittering diamonds. The soldier, wishing for a token, breaks off a twig of each as evidence. They walk on until they come upon a great clear lake. Twelve boats, with twelve princes, appear where the twelve princesses are waiting. Each princess gets into one, and the soldier steps into the same boat with the twelfth and youngest princess. The youngest princess complains that the prince is not rowing fast enough, not knowing the soldier is in the boat. On the other side of the lake stands a castle, into which all the princesses go and dance the night away.
The twelve princesses happily dance all night until their shoes are worn through and they are obliged to leave. The strange adventure continues on the second and third nights, and everything happens just as before, except that on the third night the soldier carries away a golden cup as a token of where he has been. When it comes time for him to declare the princesses’ secret, he goes before the king with the three branches and the golden cup, and tells the king about all he has seen. The princesses know that there is no use in denying the truth, and confess. The soldier chooses the eldest princess as his bride for he is not a very young man, and is made the King’s heir. The twelve princes are put under a curse for as many nights as they danced with the princesses.
Honestly, fuck that soldier for ruining the princesses fun
Tattoo idea
12 different colored dancing slippers around the calf or thigh just above the knee
