Revd Wendy Dalrymple

Revd Wendy Dalrymple, Head of Worship at Canterbury Cathedral

Transcript

00:00 Yes, please talk us through one of your tattoos, Wendy.

00:03 So this tattoo was inspired by an artist called Ben Wildflower.

00:08 And I saw some of his artwork and it was called Fruit of the Womb.

00:12 So it's a piece that's all about the incarnation, which is very seasonal because we're heading into Christmas.

00:18 So at the heart of the Christian faith is this idea that God becomes human in Jesus.

00:22 That's central to our understanding of God.

00:24 So this is about the incarnation.

00:26 So it touches on some iconography that often appears in Christian art.

00:31 So red rose, synonymous with Jesus very often, a white lily for Mary.

00:36 So Mary, mother of Jesus.

00:38 The dove is, again, a picture of the Holy Spirit.

00:42 And you'll see the dove is sitting here on a fallopian tube.

00:46 This is kind of GCSE biology now we're doing.

00:49 So, and this is a uterus.

00:52 And there's a little cross in the centre here.

00:54 And this is a chalice, a symbol of the Eucharist, of communion.

00:58 So it's a piece of artwork all about the incarnation.

01:02 But crucially for me as well, it's about the role of Mary in my faith, in bringing Jesus to us.

01:10 So it's a Christmas tattoo really. It tells the Christmas story.

01:13 (laughs)