Tattoos

Freya's Tattoos

Freya has decorated her beautiful body with two major tatoos, the ladybirds on left upper part of her left arm and the dragon on her back. Here follows the story behind her tattoos told by the artist who created them, Colin Dale, and in red (in Danish) Freya's own writings.

Many thanks to Freya for the short storis
about her tattoos, written exclusively for this site.
Also many thanks for her approval to show
the photos on this page.

Thank you to Colin Dale for his version
of the events written excluselively
for this site, the photographs of the tattoos
and his permission to use them on this site.

The Ladybirds

From the first time that Freya appeared on the Danish rock-pop scene, one of the first things that cought our attention was the 10 Ladybirds - 5 red and 5 green ones - twined around her left arm.

From time to time many people have asked Freya if her arm tattoo was "real" or merely a fake. So below you can read the true story about Freya's two tattoos, written by herself (in danish) and the artist who made the tattoos, Colin Dale. Here is what Freya writes about the Ladybirds:

Mariehøneranken

Den tatovering havde jeg overvejet i lang tid. Jeg havde i lang tid et klart billede af hvordan den skulle se ud - og hvor smart det ville være! Derfor bad jeg min bror om at tegne modellen til den når han fik tid.

En dag i december '98 kom han så hjem til mig med den, og jeg gik straks ned til Kunsten På Kroppen og fik en tid. Jeg blev tatoveret d. 30. december.

The Ladybirds

Freya had for a long time considered the ladybirds as a subject for a tattoo she would have made. She asked her brother, Rune Clausen, to create the design and had Colin Dale from Kunsten på Kroppen to make the tattooing on 30. December 1998.

The ring around Freya's left arm consists of 10 ladybirds.
As a hint to her debut single, Yellow Ladybird, it would have been obvious to draw yellow ladybirds on the arm. But Freya found that the yellow tattoo colour would not match her skin colour, so it ended up with 5 red and 5 green ladybirds.

The ladybird frieze copied together. Photos by Eric Klitgaard © 2005

Here is the tattooist Colin Dale's report on the making of the ladybird frieze:

When I first met Freya, she was a skinny little kid who had just turned 18. The thing that set her apart from most of our first time customers was her poise. She knew what she wanted and came well prepared, while still willing to listen to our expertise as well. She came alone, not with a flock of giggling girlfriends to give her support. She came with a finished line drawing (not too complicated nor too small) of the design in the correct proportions to fit around her arm, so very little modification was needed to transfer the design to her body.

Her skin was nice to work on as she took the ink quickly and evenly, so we were finished after a couple hours. At this time I took a few photos of the finished work and almost as an after thought I took a quick portrait as well.

Freya's black hair and shirt contrasted so well with her pale skin which accented the bright red and green ladybirds which were intern complimented by the same colours in her necklace. Looking back, I wish I had spent a little more time on composition.

Due to the success of her first album, it wasn't long before Freya (and her tattoo) started showing up in gossip magazines. My wife, who worked at an nursing home at this time, would often get comments from the residents who knew her husband was a tattooist about how sweet they thought Freya's tattoo was. Coming from people in their 70's and 80's this came as quite a compliment indeed. My wife would proudly comment that it was I who had tattooed her, but more often than not she would be contradicted by someone who had read in the article that her brother had done it. Of course this was totally fair, as her brother was the actual artist, while I was merely a craftsman reproducing his work.

With this in mind we were quite happy for the return visits, first by Freya's brother Rune, who had a Viking design done by Erik and finally when Freya herself returned for a second tattoo.

The Dragon

Here is what Freya writes about her second tattoo, the Dragon:

Dragen

Siden jeg fik min første tatovering har jeg leget med tanken om at få en til ... jeg overvejede lænden og maven - til højre under navlen.
Lige pludselig i sommeren 2000 besluttede jeg mig for at nu skulle det være, og at det skulle være en drage. Jeg overvejede kort en farlig, farlig tiger på spring! (Men så blev det en drage i skjul ...!)

Det var Colin Dale der tegnede dragen, - det gjorde han direkte på min ryg. Først havde han en forestilling om at den skulle fylde hele ryggen - så jeg blev lettere overrasket da jeg så mig i spejlet første gang - han havde tegnet dragen så den snoede sig fra skulderbladene og hele vejen ned, og halen snoede sig om på maven. Så der skulle lige nogle justeringer til - den blev tegnet om en del gange .... og den blev mindre og mindre. Dragens udseende kommenterede jeg også hen ad vejen og til sidst var den som jeg ville have den.

Så gik Colin igang med at tatovere og nu har jeg en fin drage på ryggen for evigt.
Jeg valgte dragemotivet fordi en drage er både råt og feminint, snørklet dekorativt på samme tid - den dobbelthed fascinerer mig.

The Dragon

Ever since Freya had had her first tattoo, she felt like having another one. Her first idea was to have one on her belly - to the right below the navel. But it ended up being a dragon on the back. Freya was facinated by the duality of the dragon - at the same time raw and though feminin. So, on 18. September 2000, Freya again went to Kunsten på Kroppen and once more it was Colin Dale who had the privilige to use Freya's pale skin as a canvas for his artistic creation!

In the first place Colin had drawn a dragon covering Freya's entire back with its tail winding round her belly! Freya almost got a chock when she watched her back in the mirror, so another sketch was made. Several attempts were made before Freya were satisfied. And now she has this facinating tattoo - often displayed by Freya wearing short tops at her live performances.

Here is the tattooist Colin Dale's report on the making of the Dragon:

Freya paid us an impromptu visit with her boyfriend in the summer of 2000, where they browsed through our photo albums and asked questions. She didn't have an exact motive in mind but had been thinking of something small on her lower abdomen or something larger on her lower back, perhaps a tiger or a dragon and asked if I'd be able to design something for her. I'm quite proud of my dragons so I was excited by the idea. I explained it was probably best if I drew directly on her with a felt marker, so we could get an original design which best complimented her form. As we are quite busy in the summer I had to set the date ahead to the 20th of September.

Freya arrived at the appointed time and we went to work. As the back is one of the largest expanses on the body, I started big. I thought a Viking dragon would be more appropriate (and original) than an Asian type, as we live in Scandinavia and her name is Freya after all.
Going from her original ideas I started on her lower back with a Viking rune dragon which extended laterally with Celtic knot work that followed the curve of her hip with the tail ending on her lower abdomen. She was a little shocked when she looked in the mirror for the first time. Although beautiful and complimentary to her form she thought it was a little more than she was willing to attempt at this time.
She told me she had envisioned more of an Asian style dragon which extended upward while remaining within the confines of her lower back. I set to work again giving the dragon an enlarged head and tightly pressed 'S' form to the body so I was allowed a large area to work while still remaining within the confines of the lower back. In this way I was able to set in the most detail, while still keeping the design simple enough to be recognised at a distance.
After the form was approved we still had to argue about size. Luckily we came to a quick compromise, as Freya's limits on how large she wanted it coincided with my limits on how small I would make it and after a few details we got started.

Sitting on the floor I began with a few short lines to accustom her to the pain again. As the lower back is between four muscle groups it doesn't have much fat or muscle to cushion the blow. Plus the fact that all the spinal nerves end at this point make it a very sensitive area indeed. Freya broke out in a cold sweat, but said to continue and soon settled into the hours of work ahead of us.
As always she sat rock steady never uttering a word, her skin took the ink well and we made rapid progress.

I gave the dragon some feminine touches with long eyelashes and the like, the squat body, large head and pushed in nose give it a rather infantile appearance ... a baby dragon. While it contains Asian aspects in the rendering, the tattooing technique is specifically Nordic giving her a one of a kind dragon that will last a lifetime ... the results speak for themselves.

You can visit Colin Dale's Tattoo Site here

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