Family Crest By Ethan Dodson

Family Crests

Ethan Dodson

My family does not have a traditional family crest. This is not particularly interesting. It would be almost impossible to pin down an ancient crest (some go as far back as the 12th century) and be able to trace it to a family living today, in this year 2022. In fact, it would be much more interesting if we did have a family crest.

Even with all of this in mind, both of my uncles have matching tattoos of a family crest on their shoulders. I’ve never asked, but l assume that the crest was drawn up by a tattoo artist and not one of our direct descendants from the 12th century.

What brought them to get matching tattoos of a lion fighting a dragon atop the word ‘Dodson’? Do they both sleep easier feeling, though falsely, that their proud bloodline fought against such beasts? Who’s to even say that families got their crest tattooed onto them? Though there is evidence of tattooing dating back even further than the tradition of family crests, the two almost certainly didn’t cross paths (until my uncles, that is). If they had, it would not have been applied to them by the sterilised needle of a tattoo gun, a technology that would only become popular after 1891.

Would knowledge of any of this affect them in any way? I must admit, l have never had the stones to say any of this to their face, so there’s no way of knowing. Maybe it’s the intimidation of their matching family crest tattoos that has stopped me from voicing these concerns or maybe, it’s the number of mental hurdles they had to jump through to get them that is truly scary.