My Bindrune Tattoo
Why I got it, and what it means to me
A question that I get asked a lot is “What does the symbol on your forearm mean?” I got this tattoo along with my Mjolnir tattoo shortly after I moved to New York State. I had decided that it was time for me to come out of my shell and practice Norse Paganism more openly.
I had never been tattooed before since tattoos are very much taboo in the religious culture I grew up with. I wanted to get something to honor Odin, Thor, and Heimdall, since those 3 are the main deities that I worship and they had really been there for me as I was figuring things out in the beginning.
It occurred to me that some of the runes have close associations with certain deities, which led me to some of the runes in the bind-rune.
The runes included in the bind-rune are:
Thurisaz
Ansuz
Eihwaz
Algiz
Thurisaz I associated with Thor, but also breaking down barriers as well as protection
Ansuz I associated with Odin as he’s the God of wisdom and the one who gave breath to Ask and Embla.
Algiz I associated with Heimdall as another rune of protection and also connecting with the divine.
As I tried to put these 3 runes together, Eihwaz appeared. It was the missing piece of the puzzle, as a rune of death and rebirth, initiation, and self-empowerment. When it came together I felt really good about it, because it fit perfectly with the intention I had set in creating this rune, as I was preparing to leave my old way of life behind me and step forward into something new. It still took me a while before getting it tattooed. I researched the meanings and meditated on each rune as well as the stave as a whole and carried around a drawing of it around with me to make sure that it was something I was connected to and wanted to put on my body. I ended up getting it done by a regular tattoo artist here in Rochester, who I have gone to for all of my tattoos so far. I didn’t do any sort of stick-and-poke ritual tattoo session from a pagan artist, as cool as that would have been, and I still hope that I’ll have the opportunity to do something like that someday. It still is incredibly meaningful to me and I am very happy with how it looks. The placement might not be the best because now I’m looking to get a full sleeve on that arm, and it might be tricky to make it cohesive with the rest of the artwork.
Going back to the question of what it means, the short answer that I usually tell people is that it’s a symbol I put together using ancient runes for the purpose of protection and self-empowerment. The runes are not something to be taken lightly, and there’s still a whole lot left for me to learn. That being said, everyone has to start somewhere, and I feel good about the effort and intention I put into creating this stave. After having it on my body for about a year now, I still feel connected with it and I’m proud to let it show.
Thank you so much for giving this a read! I’m going to try to continue posting once a week. Tuesdays seem to work the best for me so far so we’ll see if I can stay consistent. The rest of my summer is looking pretty busy, which is a good thing. Among other things, I’ve got camping trips, hikes, a 5K, and a trip to visit my family on the Oregon coast.
I really appreciate the feedback I received from last week’s post! Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment on the Instagram or Threads post, or send me a dm. Let me know your thoughts, or if you have suggestions for subjects you would like me to consider writing about. Until next time, skal!