The Little Prince Boa Drawing Tattoo

The Little Prince Boa Drawing Tattoo

Illustration

This is an image of a tattoo. Many literary adept people will see this image and instantly recognize the famous boa constrictor illustration from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The purpose of this image has been debated ever since the release of this text in 1943. To those who have never seen the image, what does it look like? In The Little Prince, Exupéry asked this very question to adults. They replied that the drawing looked like a cowboy hat, afterward suggesting that the illustrator should focus on drawing other things. In the story, Exupéry's plane comes down into the desert where he finds a young boy. He teaches him through his life story that adults will receive orders and follow them blindly, though they may have no purpose. This young boy, also known as the Little Prince, teaches Exupéry that the things that are most important are invisible. They are the meaning we make of items. To most, a rose is just another flower. But the flower can take another form when you find responsibility for the flower and care for it. The flower becomes more than a flower, but a friend. That concept is invisible and is much more important than the flower. When we look at the original illustration here, we only see what we are trained to see and nothing more. Maybe instead we should try and find a deeper meaning to the objects we see, to try and find the most important invisible object; the elephant inside the boa constrictor.

George Kacharava, the person who owns the tattoo, would say that the image means much more than this simple idea. It shows the seeming loss of creativity adults have as they were unable to guess anything other than a hat, while children (such as the Little Prince) can make so much more of the image. The image itself is a symbolic representation that we should all keep in touch with our creative side, to look beyond the illustrations we see. To see more than what's directly in front of us. Instead of just seeing a cowboy hat, what else can we see in an illustration, or rather, what do YOU see? I see a mountain, an object that stands so tall and yet has so much history, so many stories. What sorts of creative connotations can we create from an image, even without context?

When looking at illustrations within texts, it's important to take a closer look and question the different alleys of thinking illustrations can bring forth. Is a particular image trying to show more than what we may first see? For each illustration, take a minute to specifically ponder what is illustrated vs. what is seen. Can other explanations be made?

Pito Seturidze

iPhone Image

George Kacharava

2016

George Kacharava owns the rights to this particular image

https://www.thelittleprince.com/
This website holds the information and source of the year the book was published.

This is a 671x613 image on an iPhone

Tattoo