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Motif · motif_rock_of_ages

Rock of Ages

A named set-piece subject of traditional tattoo flash. ATTESTED BY NAME AND DESCRIBED BY NOBODY - this is the most-named and least-described row in sub-batch C. One Tier 2 magazine calls it “the most classic subject ever, the Rock of Ages” and, in a second artist profile on the same page, “the famed symbol the Rock of Ages”; a second Tier 2 profile lists it among flash subjects: “Panthers, flames, daggers, skulls, snakes, butterflies, tiger’s heads, the sacred heart, the Rock of Ages… are presented in single plates or as flashes distributed on the same plate.” THREE INDEPENDENT MENTIONS, THREE OF THEM LIST MEMBERSHIP, AND NOT ONE SAYS WHAT IS DEPICTED OR WHAT IT MEANS. The name is that of a Christian hymn and the subject is understood in the trade to be devotional, which is precisely why nothing further is written here: the description a reader wants is the part no fetched source supplies. Routed to T11.10 for the devotional content; kept here so the term is discoverable.
Thin
Low confidenceneeds cultural review

0 attested · 1 promoted2 sources · T2

Cultural review required

This entry makes claims about a community's practice that nobody qualified has confirmed. Treat it as research in progress, not settled fact.

What the research says

motifs_seed
Category
religious_object
Common styles
american traditional
Common themes
faith
Cultural flags
Christian devotional subject; depiction and meaning unsourced and routed to T11.10

Provenance

2 resolved

  • The wonderful world of Traditional (opens in a new tab)

    Tier 2

    Tattoo Life Crew, Tattoo Life

    Tattoo magazine book feature. Names traditional subject pairings verbatim: "snake and dagger pierced hearts", "devils ride alongside hearts and crosses with daggers", and a subject list including "mermaids, contortionists, sailing ships and helms". Cited in this batch ONLY as attestation that these objects are drawn subjects; the page states no symbolic meaning for any of them.

    professional tattoo source · published 2022-06-09 · retrieved 2026-08-30

  • The lines of Traditional by Mors (opens in a new tab)

    Tier 2

    Maggie Whales interviewing the tattoo artist Mors, Tattoo Life

    Artist interview. The interviewer describes the subjects Mors tattoos as "roses, skulls, eagles, panthers… and mandalas"; Mors himself lists his classic design panel as "tigers, panthers, snakes, roses, mandalas, torch, eagles" and says "I do love animals in general: big cats, tigers, panthers, eagles, snakes, moth." A practising artist naming a working motif vocabulary in his own words - used for motif EXISTENCE and style association only, never for symbolic meaning, which the interview does not discuss.

    artist interview · published 2024-04-15 · retrieved 2026-08-29

Related concepts

1 link

Frequently used in · 1

  • → outgoingAmerican TraditionalStyleThin
    strength 0.50promoted · not an independent attestationneeds cultural review

    Promoted from motifs_seed.common_styles of motif_rock_of_ages ('american traditional'). Provenance inherited from the parent row(s): source_tattoolife_wonderful_traditional; source_tattoolife_mors_traditional; the first is carried in source_id. No new fact: this edge restates a value already present in the corpus. STRENGTH 0.5 set by the T11.11c rule: this pairing is asserted by ONE parent row's association column and by no second row; the pack's scale reads 0.5 as 'context-dependent'. Inputs are corpus counts only - no source count, tier or confidence is used.