08/20/2026
WORK IN PROGRESS 📌
ACIENT SUMERIAN 🇮🇶 INSPIRED PIECE FOR THE RIGHETOUS, RADIANT, & RESILIENT YASMINE 💖
✨THE GODDESS
As two fearsomely radiant Iraqi women, we knew it was essential we have the mistress of the sky, goddess of goddesses, our Lady Ishtar be a main element of the tattoo. Here is Ishtar, goddess of love, war, fertility & the personification of the planet Venus. The 𒀭 on the boat, reminding us of her every guiding divinity.
🌊 THE WATER
Yasmine & I are from the south of Iraq, Nassriyeh & Basra, respectively. We decided to add elements that’s honour the Ahwar (marshes) by placing our Ishtar in a messhouf (canoe) gliding across the ancient waters of Sumer.
THE TREE
The tree is an ode to the Sumerian poem, Ishtar & the Huluppu Tree wherein our Ishtar, in her ever tenderness, saved an uprooted tree & plants it in the sacred grove of Uruk only to discover it is haunted. In its branches, the Anzu-bird takes hold; in its trunk, the Liltu female spirit; & its its roots a snake that “fears no spells”. Unable to remove the intruders, Ishtar calls on Gilgamesh, the greatest warrior who repels the invaders but in return destroys the magnificent Huluppu tree, severing the ties between the worldly & heavenly for eternity.
📜 THE PRAYER
Yasmine was adamant that whatever we did, there had to be a cuneiform (the oldest recording writing form in the entire world). So we added this excerpt from the debate between the Bird & the fish which reads: “[Enki, the divine creator] filled the reedbeds & marshes with fish & birds, indicating to them their positions & instructed them in their divine rules.”
thank to .store - especially Lucas & Agathe for their kindness, warmth, & insane hospitality 💖✨