I did a bunch of these last month (Sept 2023) because I wanted to do them. Some colored them yellow, some stuck with just black. My reason’s were many, but mostly it is because I believe liberty is the most important thing to have in a society, and this little snake is a symbol that goes along with the idea of defending liberty when it is being threatened.
The timber rattlesnake, like the bald eagle is unique to the Americas, so part of it’s significance and reason it was chosen for a very important flag is that it serves as a means of showing a separate identity from the Old World. That old world (European world) wasn’t very hot on liberty.
The Gadsden flag which sported this image is a important historical American flag with a yellow field depicting this timber rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike. Beneath the rattlesnake are the words “DONT TREAD ON ME”.
This flag was created by Christopher Gadsden, a South Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress and brigadier general in the Continental Army who designed the flag in 1775 during the American Revolution. He gave the flag to Commodore Esek Hopkins, and it was unfurled on the main mast of Hopkins’s flagship USS Alfred on December 20, 1775. Two days later, Congress made Hopkins commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy. He adopted the Gadsden banner as his personal flag, flying it from the mainmast of the flagship while he was aboard. The Continental Marines also flew the flag during the early part of the war. That was from Wikipedia. You can read their brief history of the flag HERE. I’m not going to give my own history of it, which slightly differs from the version Wikipedia now has of it. I can’t outshout Wikipedia. Instead I will recommend you look up the history of this flag and read multiple sources. It is loved by those who believe in and defend liberty. It it loathed by those who hate personal freedoms. You can straight up know what type of person is writing about it by what they say. Anybody hating on it is someone who would enslave you or imprison you if they could for not falling in line and behaving as they want you to behave. Anyone painting it as belonging to any one type or group of people besides all people who believe in liberty are simply trash humans.
What is liberty? It the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.
Note the term authority. The authority is any person or group that has the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. Note it says “power or right” in that sentence. The mob is the greatest power, and though it has no right to oppress, it is the most likely to oppress, make decisions, and enforce obedience with it’s might. Governments can be evil, but the mob is the worst.
Here is a screenshot of the current definition result on google taken on 10/27/2023.
So, enough on all that. You can and should look up as much information on what liberty is and why it is important. Books have been written, and thousands of essays exist. I need not cover it because it has been done.
So… why did I run a special on this snake? Why did I want to tattoo it on people?
I had three primary reasons.
1) I wished to create dialog and expose Nazi like scum on social media.
I ran an advert on various platforms and dialog did happen. There were those who love freedom and believe in equality who really liked this. There were also nasty people who attacked it either from ignorance or hatred. There were a few progressive racists, some antisemites, and a couple USA hating people, but mostly just self hating people wanting everyone else to suffer with them.
I had assumed I’d get hard right and far left haters both, but only leftists shouted the hate. They often considered this a right wing image. It is odd to me how if a leftist hates a thing it becomes right wing affiliated to them, and if a right winger hates a thing it becomes left wing associated. This snake, is neither.
2) I wanted a reason to talk about the history and meaning of this image on social media and within my studio face to face with people. Share it’s history and the concepts of liberty. Get people thinking and looking things up. I succeeded in that as as well.
3) and most importantly I wished to help people draw a line in the sand regarding their beliefs. Folks who would get such a tattoo obviously believe in freedom from oppression and liberty. To stand up against the mob and a government when it acts tyrannical is a tough thing though with sometimes heavy consequences. Having a symbolic tattoo of something helps draw that line in the sand and increases a person’s willpower. To be branded with a symbol of liberty is to declare yourself a champion of it. To watch people destroy liberties or to submit to those who take away such things is pretty hypocritical if you have such a tattoo. I wished by tattooing it on people to create champions of liberty. To make it so people were more apt to speak up in their own defense and in the defense of others.
In that aspect I do not know how well I succeeded. Only time will tell.
To finish up on this post I’ll say this. Our personal liberties in the USA are hardcore under attack. Cancel culture is the most obvious example on most peoples minds, and has hurt me severely over the last few years. It isn’t just that though. Yes, the leftist mob and Democratic party are going crazy with it so you may think to blame them, but Republicans are just as bad even though they do it less often. Comparing the democrats and republicans when it comes to cancel culture is like comparing rapists and saying Person A Rapes daily while person B rapes just once a week, and then claiming one rapist is better than the other. Nobody should be doing it. Then we have our lovely government and our schools… dictating how to behave, what is ok to say and think, and how we should act. They (our government) are becoming more and more restrictive.
We who believe in liberty must keep speaking up. Not just for ourselves, but for everyone. Not just in our own countries, but in all countries. We who believe in personal freedoms MUST continue to speak because some can’t, and many fear to do so. Don’t fall into the trap of speaking only on subjects that effect you. More freedom, not less should be the goal in all things.
It should be our goal to make it so all people can live as they choose, think how they wish to think, express themselves how they wish to express themselves, and say what they wish to say without harm coming to them.
The only limitations that should ever exist in this is if the person’s actions harm another person’s liberty, body, or property.
Some may argue that property should not be included in that, but they do not think deeply enough. To destroy or take another’s property is to take from their very life. For example, if a person earns $25. per hour and buys a $2000. bicycle they have just traded 80 hours of their waking life for that bicycle. More really, because it took more time considering commute to and from work, plus the government stole probably 30% of the money they earned meaning they’d need work even more hours. So, even if it was just 80 hours, why should another person have the right to steal 80 hours of their life? No, property should be included. A person’s liberty, body, and property are important.
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