The Tattooed Princess

Her First Tattoo

In and around the Altai Mountain Range of Western Asia, seventy million years ago, a dinosaur roamed those foothills. It was the size of the much later lion, and had a hard, pointed beaked mouth instead of teeth. Today it is called protoceratops. When the Earth's weather and environment changed over many millions of years later, this creature's remains were buried by the dust and wind and became fossils. The Pazyryk peoples of that region, many hundreds of millennia later, were known for their mining of the gold which formed in veins in the rocks outcroppings of the Altai plains.

It is said that these Scythians were the first humans to uncover this odd and impressive creature's skeletal remains during their excavations for gold. And believing the creature to be some sort of god, once roaming the land, they gave it the name tal-aida, meaning "wild beast of power." To the Pazyryk, images of this creature, sometimes with added imaginary wings, adorned the decorative objects they so loved-rugs, urns, their clothing, and the walls of their tents. It is believed by scholars to be the origin of the creature we call today the mythological griffin-later to adorn the halls of power of European empires and as seen as an insignia of greatness today. The ancient Greeks were the first to encounter the Scythian peoples around 700 BCE and they brought back tales and images of their "tal-aida" to fuse with their own incomparable myths of romance and enchantment.

Following Zaria's, Svetlana's and Branka's somber bath that morning, the girls were instructed to come to the king's quarters to meet with the artist he had selected for them. It was to initiate a tattoo for each of them, which Zaria had requested, and Sharvur granted as a promise.

As they entered the chamber-a side dressing room to the king's bedroom. The girls were asked to sit on the floor around a central table by the young artist who was waiting for them. He told them his name was Tsudros and he had on the table a bag of his necessary equipment. He was surprisingly youthful and not many years older than the three, who were all approaching their eighteenth year. Tsudros had his own collection of tattoos on his arms and neck which upon close inspection were dizzying in their detail and fantastic designs.

There were arabesques of floral patterns mixed with creatures ranging from small and large birds to insects and larger beasts-camels, elephants, gazelles, water buffalo, and even the royal creatures, designated only for special members of Sharvur's court-panthers, lions and tigers.

The girls were charmed by Tsudros and his body art. But mainly it was his age, friendly demeanor, and that he was so attractive to them-bodily, and of face, which always seemed to offer a caring smile. He firstly explained that he was instructed to only give them one example of his craft that morning. Nothing more, he insisted. He also told them that Zaria could choose her own design, but it must not be the same as the other two girls, who would, like she, wear that image for the rest of their lives.

"What shall we chose, girls? Zaria asked of her friends who seemed not entirely enthused with the ensuing procedure. It was a matter of scratching the skin with deep, fine cuts and lines until they bled. And then the rubbing of burnt plant soot and oil into the curvilinear wounds to stain the skin eternally.

"I want something very very . . . small!" answered Svetlana, causing the others, and the artist himself a good laugh.

"Well I want a beautiful bird," said Branka, self-assured and the next to speak. "Not too large . . and here. . . behind my shoulder."

Tsudros bent over and pulled back her light top to expose the region of skin. He seemed to inspect it as a viable canvass for his art.

"Very well," he said enthusiastically.