bat in The Art of Falconry
bat in The Art of Falconry , a Latin ornithology book originally published in 1241
Tattoo for @darkage.online •
In a 13th-century manuscript on falconry, De Arte Venandi cum Avibus, there’s a small illustration that doesn’t quite fit. Amid hundreds of detailed birds, there’s a bat—dark, strange, and a little unsettling. It’s drawn with too many limbs, each one shaped like a hand. The anatomy is off, almost surreal. But that’s what makes it stand out. This manuscript, commissioned by Manfred around 1260, holds over 900 images. Most are studies of birds in flight, perched, or mid-hunt. Precise, lifelike. The bat is different—more imagined than observed. Maybe it came from myth. Maybe it was the lack of anatomical knowledge at the time. Either way, it tells us something about how the unknown was seen back then—creatures that didn’t fit were drawn through the lens of symbolism, not science.
I’ve tattooed that bat once—right in the center of the chest, between the breasts. I’m not the first, and definitely not the only. That image has been recreated on skin countless times. But even knowing it’s been done before, it still felt special. There’s something about that bat I keep coming back to. Mysterious, a little off, but full of meaning. Like it wasn’t meant to be accurate—just remembered.