On the meanings we carry

I have a full Norse mythology tattoo sleeve. Within it are a valknut and three runes: O, D, and M. They’re part of how I connect to my ancestors, and having them on my skin makes that connection feel personal in a way that reading about the mythology never could. But some of those marks also carry associations with people whose beliefs I completely reject. Racism, white supremacy, and Nazi ideology have attached themselves to parts of the same visual language I’ve chosen to carry. I find that difficult to untangle, because knowing what they mean to me doesn’t make those other associations disappear. There are specific histories here, and I want to be careful with them. Othala, the O rune, was adopted by the Nazis and subsequently by white supremacists. The valknut has also been appropriated by white supremacist groups. Both have non-racist uses, and context matters; the ADL’s entries on Othala and the valknut explicitly acknowledge that. It would be wrong to flatten every rune, or…