Illustrative Tattoos | Mythology and Fantasy Women

I've always been drawn to drawing women...

Not in a loud way. Not in a way that needs an audience. The quiet kind of strength. The kind that knows exactly who it is and doesn't need to explain itself to anyone. That's the thread that runs through almost all of my illustrative work, and it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

I wanted to write this post because I get asked quite often where my ideas come from. Why the mythological figures. Why the animals. Why the darkness sitting right alongside the florals. So here it is, as honestly as I can put it.

Greek Mythology and the Women Who Were Never Just Decorative

I came to Greek mythology the way a lot of people do. Slowly at first, a name here, a story there. And then all at once, completely obsessed.

What pulled me in wasn't the gods. It was the women. Persephone, who was taken to the underworld and came back changed, more powerful, more herself. Hecate, keeper of crossroads and magic, misunderstood and extraordinary. Artemis, goddess of the hunt, who chose wildness over domestication. These aren't gentle, obedient figures. They're complex. They carry contradiction. They're beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.

The Persephone half sleeve I tattooed is probably the piece that says the most about why I love this subject. Skulls nestled in roses, an exposed ribcage, that dark feminine energy that feels almost mythological because it is. She isn't a victim in this version. She never was.

Skaldi and the World of Norse Mythology

Norse mythology came later for me, but it hit just as hard.

Skaldi is a Norse goddess of winter, hunting and mountains. She's one of those figures that history has quietly underplayed, which makes me like her even more. She negotiated her own terms after her father was killed. She chose her husband by looking only at their feet. She is not someone who waited around to be saved.

The Skaldi calf piece captures that energy in a way I'm really proud of. A warrior woman wearing a leopard headdress, red war paint on her face, a red feather held across her body. There's colour in this piece where most of my work stays black and grey, and that felt right for her. She demanded to be noticed.

Fantasy Characters and the Freedom to Create

Not every strong woman I tattoo comes from mythology. Some of them come from my own imagination, or from a collaboration between me and a client who has a very clear idea of who they want to wear on their skin forever.

The elven women I design tend to carry that same quality. Something ancient about them. Something that knows more than it lets on. The Dragon Queen thigh piece came from exactly that place, a powerful female figure entwined with dragons, layered shading, a face that holds its own against everything surrounding it. She isn't fragile. Neither are the dragons.

The fox woman thigh piece is another favourite. Softer in energy but no less intentional. A woman with a fox headdress surrounded by florals, that liminal space between human and wild. There's something about the woman and animal pieces that I keep coming back to. The idea that wildness isn't something separate from femininity. It's part of it.

Why These Themes Keep Finding Me

I think the honest answer is that I've always felt more at home in the in between spaces. Not quite one thing, not quite another. And the figures that live in mythology and fantasy tend to occupy that same space. They're neither fully human nor fully divine. Neither entirely light nor entirely dark.

My work sits there too. Dark florals next to delicate linework. Skulls next to roses. A goddess who rules the underworld and makes it look like somewhere you'd want to stay.

If you've found yourself drawn to these themes, chances are you already know which piece is yours. You've probably been sitting with the idea for a while, saving references, coming back to the same images. That feeling is the starting point. That's where we begin.

When my books open, you can get in touch via getink.app/artists/samanthabeedie.tattoos. I'd love to hear what you've been thinking about.

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Samantha Beedie is a tattoo artist based in Altrincham, UK, specialising in neo traditional illustrative black and grey tattoos. Follow her work on Instagram @samanthabeedie.tattoos