The Story of The Coptic Cross

Egypt was a fertile ground for Christianity in the first few centuries after Christ. The Coptic Church was very strong and influential in the time, with some of the early debates of Christianity being held in the city of Alexandria. Monasticism started in Egypt, and altogether, Egypt was a Christian country for a while. However, in the late 630's there occurred Arab invasions of Egypt, and thus a widely Christian majority became a minority in their own land. At first, there was a minority Muslim government in Egypt, but they realized that in order to maintain power and grow, they had to make life more difficult for Christians who refused to convert to Islam. They made Christians pay very high taxes, limited their traditional dress, and expanded the use of the Arabic language, and eventually, the Copts became a persecuted minority.

Originally, tattooing was used as a degrading practice in the Roman Empire to brand slaves. Some Pagan worship adopted this, and would worshippers would tattoo themselves as slaves to a god. The practice was adopted also by some early Coptic monks, marking themselves as "slaves for Christ," but the widespread of the Coptic Cross tattoo arose amidst persecutions.

As years went by, some Muslim authorities would attempt to eradicate Christianity by using very severe tortures and methods. There came a point where Copts were given a choice: either convert to Islam, or pay an extremely high tax, or die. Copts were humiliated, and made to ride donkeys backwards, while wearing a bell around their necks. The 1200's were an especially difficult time for the Coptic church. If the Christians spoke Coptic in public, their tongues would be cut off. It was a time of hardship and tribulation, but it is through tests and trials that the church continues to grow. The Coptic Cross become famous in this time. Parents would tattoo their young with a small cross on their wrist, to remind them of their Christian faith in the case that their parents were killed or if they were kidnapped. Some Copts actually got the tattoo on their foreheads as a way of showing everyone around them their pride in their Christian faith. The cross tattoo became a symbol of belonging to Christ and a method to preserve the youth's faith in the even that parents were no longer with them. The Coptic faith gave Copts a sense of being different, and it is that feeling that has helped preserve the Coptic church through so many years of persecution. Now, the Coptic cross tattoo is carried on by many Copts, not only as a tradition, but as a symbol of the enduring Christian faith, and a sign of dedication to the One who bore the true sufferings and countless scars for our sakes. It is not a sign of teenage rebellion or any sort of fashion statement. It is a symbol of pride in our faith and defiance of the "norms" in Egypt and during persecution.

Rebel Waltz Tattoo

Last week, my cousin and I went around to visit a few different possible places to get our tattoos. We went to Blaze Ink, 13th Hour Tattoo, Soul Survivor Body Art, Osborne Village Ink Tattoo, and Rebel Waltz. Blaze Ink and Rebel Waltz seemed like the friendliest and cleanest places (least likely for our parents to get freaked out and change their opinions.) However, Rebel Waltz gave us a quote of $80 each, while most other places were $120 minimum. My cousin and I both felt comfortable in Rebel Waltz an the lady was very friendly, so we've decided that that'll be the place we go to get our tattoos done. We may be going on April 30th if everything works out!!! Very exciting. Now, I'm just trying to finalize a design. :)

Something interesting happened when we went to Soul Survivor. When we showed our design to one of the artists, she was trying to convince us to get it bigger than we wanted. We said "no, we can't get it too big," and she said "why, who cares? It'll look better." Then, my cousin, Peter, said "our parents care!" She sort of laughed at us and said "oh they won't notice" and tried to convince us to show our parents a smaller design then get a bigger one when we actually go to get the tattoo. That situation bothered me and we both decided we wouldn't be going there to get anything. I was glad that my cousin wasn't shy to say that our parents care about the size and that matters for us, because it does. Part of our Christian faith is to "honour your father and mother," and it would be quite ironic to disobey your parents in the process of getting a cross tattooed on your wrist.

For Fun Trials

Here are a few trials with a black pen I did on my wrist very quickly to get an idea of what it could look like.

Sketches

In these sketches, I tried to combine a regular cross with a coptic cross. It didn't turn out great in my opinion.

After working on these designs for a bit of time, I feel like my heart and my brain both keep going back to just a regular simple cross without anything fancy. I don't know if I'll be able to incorporate the Coptic aspect in it or not, yet. One idea is to incorporate the letter Alpha and Omega in coptic letters. 

Progress Update

This past month I began to design the cross I'll be getting and had some conversations with my parents about it. They are okay with the idea of it and I managed to reassure my dad about the safety precautions that the tattoo parlours take. The only disagreement we have so far is about the size, and we agreed that we'll discuss it after I choose a design. 

The thing with designing it is that it doesn't have to be PERFECTLY precise. You can just come up with the general idea and the artists will make it symmetrical and perfect it. The designs I've made were mainly coptic crosses with a regular cross incorporated in the middle somehow. I'm not sure if I really like that but the idea is to try to get both in one because they are both important to me. The designs I've done so far haven't really fully pleased me so I'll keep working on them. At this point however, it's looking like I might stick with the typical orthodox cross (regular cross but 3 circles at each end.) This way, I get the look and feel of the regular cross but the orthodox aspect is not forgotten. Altogether, I still have some thinking to do about it yet, and I'll talk to my mentor and maybe my priest about what they think.

One obstacle I've been facing is laziness. I keep telling my self that this is something easy and that I'll be able to finish it in no time, but last week, when I was actually designing during my free time, I sort of remembered that I'm a perfectionist and the tiniest errors annoy me. This means I'll have to really work hard and have time set aside for this and not let it slip away till exams are just around the corner.

So far, there hasn't been much for my mentor to do. Designing the cross is more of a personal thing for me and once that's done then I'll really need his help with picking a place and finding quality work at a reasonable price. I know that some tattoo parlours price by the piece so after I'm done designing it I'll visit those places to get a quote and see if it costs less than the other places that price by the hour. 

One more thing is that my cousin has been wanting get the coptic cross tattoo as well and wants to come with me. After we both choose our designs we've decided to call the places again and see if we could both get our tattoos in the same hour to have the price combined for us both since this tattoo will likely only take about 15 minutes or less. I don't really think they'd be willing to do that but there's no harm in asking! 

In my next couple posts, I'll share the rough designs I had so far, and I'll also share the story of how the coptic cross tattoo came to be a 'thing' in the first place.