The Fountain and the Unicorn

Tattoo by @notattoo_berlin, made at @visionsofecstasy.studio
Tattooed for @_niklahum

This tattoo was made for @_niklahum, based on a small detail from The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries.

The idea did not begin with me. Nikla brought the reference already with a clear and precise interest in the image. We focused on the fountain: a tall white structure at the center of one of the panels, easy to miss inside the larger story, but impossible to forget once noticed.

In the tapestry, the unicorn kneels beside the fountain and purifies the water with its horn. Birds gather around it. Plants, animals, hunters, and symbolic details fill the scene, but the fountain holds a different kind of attention. It is still, vertical, almost architectural. Removed from the full narrative, it becomes its own image — quiet, intricate, and sacred.

The original tapestries were made in the late 15th or early 16th century, probably in the Southern Netherlands. Their exact origin remains uncertain, but they were most likely commissioned for an aristocratic context, possibly connected to devotion, marriage, or symbolic power. Today, they are held at The Met Cloisters in New York.

What makes these tapestries so powerful is their density. Wool, silk, and metallic threads are used to create a world full of signs: medieval plants believed to cure poison, animals from different parts of the known world, hunters moving through the background, and the unicorn appearing between myth, nature, and sacrifice.

But for this tattoo, the whole story was not necessary.

The fountain was enough.

It carries the force of the larger image without needing to explain everything around it. It is only one detail, but it contains the atmosphere of the tapestry: purification, stillness, devotion, and mystery.

That is what made it interesting as a tattoo. A small fragment taken from a much larger medieval world, placed on the body with enough space to breathe.

A fountain.
A unicorn.
A quiet center inside a larger hunt.

Explore the original The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestry series here: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/467075
Learn more about The Met Cloisters collection here: https://www.metmuseum.org/visit/met-cloisters

Jorge