"Ink," the origin and meaning of his tattoos...

[7oddisdead]

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Geology-1359/oil.htm

While ^this link has little to do with most of what we are talking about here...i find it interesting how most of the geological stuff we have talked about here and regaurding ground zero appear in this text...interesting stuff for sure..

[Witch_Doctor]

It gets better and goes deeper.

On the back of his hand (and on his middle finger) are a series of lines and dots. To me, these look like one of, or a combination of:

The Celestial/Angelic Alphabet: (WIKI)
Documented (Created?) by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in the 16th century. Derived from the Hebrew and Greek alphabets, and purported to be used for communication with angels.

The Malachim: (WIKI)
Same guy, also derived from the Hebrew and Greek alphabets. Still in use to a limited extent by the Freemasons.

The Transitus Fluvii or "Passing the River alphabet" (WIKI)
Same guy again. Derived from the Hebrew alphabets. It is described as an occult alphabet.

These, combined with others are found in/on the magical incantations of wards, talismans, curses and the like in many faiths such as early Judeo-Christianity and Druidic/Paganism. It seems that Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa may have building on King Solomon and the incorrectly attributed Key of Solomon, around which there are many legends of magical power relating to the summoning and control of spirits and demons.

Then there is the Snakes and the Bacteria. I'm at somewhat of a loss to explain these. The snakes could be a reference to the Original Sin, where the Fallen Angel Lucifer, in the form of a snake, persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.

As for the bacteria, I don't know if it is a generalized representation or meant to be a specific strain. While looking them up I was struck by the idea that the bacteria may be responsible for secreting the above mentioned chemicals. Perhaps a Molecular Chemist and a Bacteriologist could shed more light on this.

I wonder... it this meant to be indicative of the fusion of science and religion? The combination of the occult with technology that brought about the zombie holocaust? This adds another layer to the already mysterious question of who is this guy?

Awesome find on the Benzine Rings. I had been racking my brain for months trying to see if there was a connection to Tetrodotoxin which is the toxin in Puffer Fish used by Voodun to create zombies. By way of a misspelling I came across Tetradioxin and a few mouse clicks later to this picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2,...tuted_PCDF.svg Going from left to right, the fourth and fifth images look pretty similar to the artwork but they make absolutely no sense to the story. I found a dead end there, but your search shows more promise.

As for the snake symbols, there seems to be a straight forward connection to Voodoo. In fact, perhaps this thread should be merged with Chapter 27's Episode Artwork Has Voodoo Images thread. Does anyone remember this little gem posted by Eviebae?



This is called a veve. This is the same image on the hand closest to the fingers. The veves are symbolic representations of spirits of the Voodoo pantheon. The one on Pinstripe's hand is one of the veves for the deity Damballah-Wedo. This is the creator deity. But Damballah is a Divine Watch Maker type of creator. He creates the universe then takes no active part in running it. The intermediaries, or forces of nature, are the lower deities called Loa. They are analogous to saints or angels. Hold on to your hats... There are several FAMILIES of them!

First, know that Voodoo, like all religions, have many elements that vary from different practitioners. Here are a few interesting things about the Loa.

• Each family of Loa have unique traits.
• One family, The Petro Loa are generally the more fiery, occasionally aggressive and warlike Loa, and are associated with Haiti and the New World. They include Ezili Dantor, Marinette, and Met Kalfu.
• Marinette is a cruel and vicious loa...While she is feared and tends to ride those she possesses violently, she can also be seen as one who frees her people from bondage....Her Catholic counterpart is the Anima Sola (Forsaken Soul) who can either free one from bondage or drag you back. Her colors are black and deep blood red. Sound like anyone we know?
• Papa Legba is the intermediary between humans and the Loa. This is one of his veves. http://altreligion.about.com/od/symb...es/Legba-2.htm Notice that this is the same as the image on the lower part of Pinstripe's hand, nearest to the rist.
• Papa Legba is well represented in pop culture. In 1982, Elton John released a UK B-side titled "Hey, Papa Legba," with lyrics by longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin. The musical groups Talking Heads, The Smalls, Angel, Sun City Girls, and Sun God have also made songs named after him.
• In the 1986 film Crossroads, blues musicians Robert Johnson and Willie Brown sell their souls to a "Mr. Legba" at a Mississippi crossroads.
• Later in the film Legba takes the name "Scratch".
• IMDB link to Crossroads movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090888/
• 'Scratch' is a nickname for the Devil.
• There are even Loa twins in Vodou, the Marassa Jumeaux are the divine twins.
• Season 3, Chapter 27, "The 31st" If you divide 27 by 3 you get 9. 9 + 31 is 40 and... OK, I'm just fucking with y'all now. :-)

What can we make of all of this? Personally, I don't see these as being much in the way of any insight to the story's plot or zombie origins. I think these are symbolic elements of the story. Icons that ground some of the characters to mythological motifs. Perhaps, and I sort of hope, that the story is being told in a manner influenced by the works of Joseph Campbell. The characters represent archetypes of heroes and villains, angels and demons, sages and fools. The use of symbols does not mean that the story has a supernatural factor. It only serves as a way to connect the characters to the larger forces that control the lives of the subjects of the story. Perhaps, also, we will never know the great details of the scientific reasons behind the outbreak. This is also a hope of mine. Our heroes are learning quite a bit about the zombies and their nature but not enough, yet, for it to turn into a 'Star Trek-esque' work of science fiction. We've been spared the Mr. Spocks and Cmdr Datas with their super brains and scientific explanations. That works well in Star Trek because the science is so far into the future that anything they say can be made to make sense. Can't travel faster than light? Well, just go to warp speed. Pesky quantum physics getting in the way of a a working transporter? Just connect a Heisenberg Compensator.

'Star Wars' started out by telling a fantasy story without trying to explain away the mysteries with too much science. Do you know what happened? Midi-freaking-chlorians!

[Witch_Doctor]

Oh, and another thing.

Coincidence?

[Red Shirt]

Awesome find on the Benzine Rings. I had been racking my brain for months trying to see if there was a connection to Tetrodotoxin which is the toxin in Puffer Fish used by Voodun to create zombies. By way of a misspelling I came across Tetradioxin and a few mouse clicks later to this picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2,...tuted_PCDF.svg Going from left to right, the fourth and fifth images look pretty similar to the artwork but they make absolutely no sense to the story. I found a dead end there, but your search shows more promise.

As for the snake symbols, there seems to be a straight forward connection to Voodoo. In fact, perhaps this thread should be merged with Chapter 27's Episode Artwork Has Voodoo Images thread. Does anyone remember this little gem posted by Eviebae?

Strange. I performed a forum search for the tattoos... Perhaps my search parameters and/or permutations were insufficient.

I joined "during" Chapter 28 and wasn't yet very active on the forums, so I kinda missed current discussion on Chapter 27. Darn. I don't feel like the wind has been sucked out of my sails, I'm relieved and I feel bad that others noticed before I did and it got discussion time on WND under my forum name. I did discover it, just not first. Eviebae and Cupcake Zombie deserve a heap of credit too.

As far as I'm concerned, that Veve is identical to the tattoo(s) on his fingers. I'm satisfied with that explanation. I had an odd thought that it might have to do with something astronomical, like the apparent oscillation of a heavenly body. Here I was spending half the night looking up archaeoastronomy to try to nail down the significance and connection of the Maya, the Chichen Itza observatory, Venus and the feathered serpent god Kukulkan. I'm glad that there is a far simpler answer than the rabbit hole I was going down.

I like your thoughts on "over scienceing" a thought or idea taking away from the enjoyment of said idea. I'm still curious though as to what that chemical chain might be. We may never know... part is obscured and other parts seem blurry.


Voodoo on the fingers? Check.
Chemicals on the wrist? Check, sort of.
...
WTF is that on the back of his hand?

I'm still convinced that it is related somehow to Solomonic magic. I was able to locate information on talismanic magic in the third book of the Greater Key and haven't made a match yet.

Of those three mystical alphabets and a fourth related one, Enochian, that may also be involved, you have two forms of communication with Angels, a means with which to summon and control demons and a language of the Freemasons?

< That. That's all I have to say at the moment. I'm going to go take a nap.

[Witch_Doctor]

Red Shirt, you're still on a roll. Don't slow your roll. Boy, I was up all night, too, chasing all of this stuff around. KC has us studying this show like we're Biblical Scholars.
What I also forgot to mention was that the Damballah is related to the origin of the world just like your theory of the organic chemical compounds. You even got a "Fascinating" comment from KC on the board and he discussed it with fans at the meet and greet.



Back to bed I go.
KC, if I oversleep and miss work I'm gonna need a job.

[OhSnapitsme]

simply amazing the thought you put into this, if you dont mind, id like to add a bit. As to the snake, going with the religious route, it could simbolize the temptation to the forbidden, which in the hebrew faith, eating the flesh of another is an almost unforgivable sin.
nature.nps.gov/hazardssafety/toxic/chrysene.pdf is a good read on the effects of chrysene on humans and animals
http://dhss.delaware.gov/dph/files/benzopyrenefaq.pdf is a good one for Benzo(a)pyrene. an interesting part from that is this, where it comes from.

"Benzo(a)pyrene is found in nature from the eruption of volcanoes and forest fires. Yet this chemical
compound is also man-made. Benzo(a)pyrene can be found in surface water, tap water, rainwater,
groundwater, wastewater and sewage sludge. Man-made releases of benzo(a)pyrene are to the air, where
sunlight turns the chemical into a dry form that falls to the ground and breaks down in the soil. This chemical
results from burning plants, wood, coal, and operating cars, trucks and other vehicles. The major indoor
sources of benzo(a)pyrene in the air are wood-burning fireplaces and stoves, and tobacco smoking. There is
no known industry production or use of benzo(a)pyrene."

Just something to ponder, maybe the earth is trying to press restart...

[Vlarken]

In the later episodes, I've been noticing some parallels to The Stand (Stephen King). Chiefly: the main city that survivors are going to is Boulder, Colorado, as it is in The Stand; and the gradual gathering of forces, that will probably end with a clash between the Good people and the Evil people. In The Stand, it was a clash between Las Vegas (evil), and Boulder (good). They never actually went to true war, but I won't go into the whole plot.

In We're Alive, it looks to be a clash between The Military/Tower people, and The Mallers/Colony. Anyway, here's how this relates to Ink: In The Stand, the main antagonist is a demon/otherworldy force who names himself Randall Flagg. If I was to draw another parallel, I would say that Ink is a sort Randall Flagg character.

In the beginning of the show, the news reporter said that Ink was a paranoid schizophrenic. I think that his schizophrenia was actually visions from a force that wanted him to lead a legion to eradicate all people. After the whole outbreak started, Ink's visions told him to go to the cracks that appeared in the earth, and let himself be infected with the disease directly. So, since he was the one meant to lead, his infection endowed him with the power to do so.

I also think that the different types of biters are the result of Ink using his power to warp humans/biters into new and different forms, so that they'll be more effective when he decides to go to war. And one more slightly cracked out theory: I think Ink might bargain with The Mallers, to gain the extra force to go to war against the Good people.

So... Ridiculous, or am I on to something?

[socali]

Interesting theories everyone...

[Witch_Doctor]

So... Ridiculous, or am I on to something?

You ,very well, may be on to something. I believe that after 7000 years of civilization stories are retold over and over again in new combinations, with new characters, new endings, new settings... It would not be unreasonable to assume the things that you have. Think of the Key Master and "Gate Keeper " in Ghost Busters. Bill/Ink could be a medium under control of some external force. I'm currently listening to another zombie-esque novel where new monsters begin to appear after the zombies take over. Some of the characters speculate that the zombies are used as a vangaurd to an invasion of Earth and the monsters serve as a method of changing earth's ecology to the aliens' world. It's like reverse-terraforming.

Even if we are wrong we could create a pretty good mythology/background for another story with all of our speculating. Just imagine the amount of research that could be done on the theories of story telling by reading our forums.

[Red Shirt]

I believe that after 7000 years of civilization stories are retold over and over again in new combinations...

A littler longer than that actually...

While I am able to connect to the internet for the moment, I just want to throw this out there. The discovery is a year or t
Many, like myself, thought that Sumer, Babylon and others were among the first in the beginnings in the "Cradle of Civilization." Somewhere in the neighborhood of eightish thousand years ago or so.

A "recent" discovery pegs it at about 12,000 years ago. The Göbekli Tepe site in Turkey is now known to be the oldest Neolithic site in the world discovered so far. It has opened a whole new chapter for discovery of ancient and lost civilizations.

So, what other cultures have been lost but might have passed on their tales without our knowing?