If you've read my book, Tattoo Magick, you know there is a lot of magick to be made. But I'll let you in on a little bonus magick: you can put thoughtforms in your tattoos.

What's a thoughtform, and why do you care? Excellent questions, imaginary-reader-who's-a-convenient-plot-device! A thoughtform is what its constituent parts suggest: it's a thought, or thoughts, made form. It stands to reason that if we can work magick, we can change reality with our thoughts. And if we can change reality with our thoughts, is it really a leap to believe we can create reality? Or at least, create something?

Don't believe me? Meet Philip. In Toronto in 1972, a group of people including a geneticist, an engineer, and a MENSA chairperson, decided to see if they could, by putting sufficient energy into forming its fictional backstory, create an entity they could contact in a séance. With a lot of thought, they created the story of a fictional man from seventeenth-century England who became a spy, friend of the king, and paramour of a Romani woman. Upon time for the séance, when asking questions of Philip, they began to hear knocking in the table in response. Over time they decoded the meaning of the knocks and used it to communicate with Philip. He was even known to move the table across the room and twice made it levitate!^{1 2}

As a phenomenon thoughtforms are pretty interesting, and kind of ego-boosting to make. They aren't just for conversations on nights you feel particularly lonely, though; their real usefulness lies in your ability to have them do tasks for you. Want 24/7 protection? You can make wards around your house, maybe carry a charm…or you can create a thoughtform to watch over you and pre-emptively deal with dangers coming your way. You can do a spell to lose weight…or you can make a spirit not only to be the extra voice in your head saying, "No! No! NO!" but also to steer you clear of as many temptations as possible. You can do a spell for creativity…or you could empower a servitor to scour the astral plane for valuable, half-formed ideas, and give them to you while you dream.

How do tattoos help in making thoughtforms? They can provide both of the things a thoughtform needs. First, a home base to reside in when they're not doing their job. There aren't many more fitting places for it, you'll never lose it, and you will always have it near you. That latter thing makes tattoos especially good for thoughtforms you want near you at all times, like for protection or banishing bad habits. Second, energy or attention. Your tattoo resides in your body, which is full of energy, physical or metaphysical. If you want you can program the thoughtform to take as much energy from you(r energy field) as you need, provided it doesn't affect your physical, mental, or spiritual health. Alternatively, since it's right at your side, whenever you think of your thoughtform you can consciously feed it energy. If it's attention you want to give, no matter where you are you can talk to your tattoo, touch it, massage it when you think about your thoughtform. And let's not forget, in getting the tattoo you are literally creating in miniature what you want to change in the world.

Creating Your Tattoo Thoughtform
Step 1: Design it.
Your tattoo is going to be your thoughtform's home base. Usually, the container is designed to be a reflection of the thoughtform, like making a clay statue or a wood carving, or a painting. So I want you to think carefully about what you think the thoughtform should look like. It can have any form you want; feel free to be creative. If it's for protection you probably would want to give it razor sharp claws or fangs or a tail with a stinger. If it's to bring positive financial opportunities to you, you might go for something with tentacles, because they have suckers. You can also go apeshit over symbolism: pepper it with correspondences like color or numerology. You can feel free to be abstract with your tattoo, if you want, like just having a stick figure, or a gust of wind. I currently house my thoughtform in a birth chart. The more detail you put into your thoughtform, the more thought is put in it and the more powerful it will be. So while you're at it, give it a name and a back story.

Step 2: Pick a good time for it to be created.
Timing can make or break a spell, especially if astrology is important to you. So plan out the best time to give birth to your thoughtform. The New Moon is always a good choice. Paying attention to moon sign is also good (when in doubt, choose a time when the Moon is in Scorpio if you want something more intense, and a time when the Moon is in Pisces if not). So is choosing an appropriate planetary hour. Really, though, if there is a need, or your tattoo artist has weird availability, any time is good.

Step 3: Cleanse the area right before the tattoo session.
This is a sacred act, so let's treat this as sacred. Cleanse and purify the area like you would any sacred space before ritual. Don't put oils on it, though, because those aren't sterile and you're about to get a bunch of tiny wounds on your body! If in doubt, you can charge some water and rub counterclockwise on the area while chanting, "On this very hallowed [day/night]/space sacred I now make/a nexus for the energies/this birthing rite must take."

Step 4: The creation ritual.
When you're getting tattooed, I want you to feel the "vibration" of the tattoo machine (it's not a vibration, but it pierces the skin so quickly that it feels like a vibration). Feel it vibrate your skin. Feel the vibrations like stones in a pond, creating tiny ripples of energy that spread around the area. As time goes on the energy vibrations build. The area tingles with energy and anticipation. Soon that part of your body is alive with energy.

The entire time I want you to think about your thoughtform and what you want it to do for you. To make things easier on your brain, rather than visualize anything, perhaps do some chanting like, "Fred, my bone monster, my guard dog, my body guard. Be thou made in this moment to serve me and protect me for all the days of your existence," or, "Prime my first, and only one/who robs my saboteurs of their fun/their thoughts, good luck, and energy/be now made, so mote it be." Keep chanting, out loud or in your mind while you feel the energies building.

At a certain point, you will feel a shift, whether on the skin, in your mind, or somewhere else. For me, it almost feels like a release, like the energy vibrations stop and the area opens up, and out comes my thoughtform for the first time. It may feel different for you, but you will know it when it happens. When that occurs, you have your thoughtform!! Say hello!

Optionally, you can set some ground rules when your thoughtform first appears. I, for example, will tell it to reside in my tattoo when no longer doing its job, that it may take of my energy to feed itself so long as it isn't so much I start to feel it, and that I will remake it every New Moon (more on that later).

After the Tattoo
Maintaining Your Thoughtform
As I said before, thoughtforms thrive on attention and energy. Decide which you want to give it to thrive, though there's nothing stopping you from giving both! If it's attention, take time to talk to it regularly, like a daily sentence or two, or a weekly short conversation. Feel free to say how grateful you are that it is doing its job. Spending time drawing it is a form of attention. So is making up stories about your thoughtform doing its job admirably. If it's energy you want to give, you can give of the energy in your body. You can also do the more typical offerings like oils or food.

Regenerating Your Thoughtform
One of the cardinal rules about thoughtforms is that you don't let them live long. The longer they live the more sentient they become, and the more independent they become. This includes independence in interpreting how to carry out its job, which I'm sure you can guess is frequently not good. In its independence it might decide to do other things to fill its time, which you very much do not want. The standard rule of thumb I've heard is to not keep them alive for longer than 30 days.

"But Jake!" you say. "Don't tattoos last longer than 30 days?!" Very true! Don't worry though; you have a workaround. For my own thoughtforms, save one that has grown attached to me, and I to him, if I plan to keep them around for long I will remake them anew every New Moon. Strip each thoughtform down to the seed of energy and intention that makes it up, and then remake it. Stripping it to its seed wipes away any of the thoughtform's growing sentience, but in the seed I'm still keeping the blueprints of the thoughtform, including its job to do.

For this ritual I simply use some charged water and a charged oil blend for magick (jasmine and cypress). Every New Moon, I announce to my thoughtform, by name, that "Now is the time that I turn you into the seed that made you, so that you may be reborn anew, fresh, to continue to carry out your mission." Taking the charged water, I rub in a counterclockwise spiral on my tattoo, chanting, "Now cleansed you are/but don't go far/a seed again/to be entrained." As I do it I visualize my thoughtform becoming less distinct, less detailed, and shrinking, until it is just a small ball of light. When that is done, I take the oil, and rub in a clockwise circle on the same area, chanting, "Now born again/the same refrain/the orders same/the form is same/the name is same/[say the name]!" Feel the area tingle, kind of like when you were being tattooed. When you feel the same shift as in the tattoo studio, your thoughtform is born again, ready to take on its work!

A Closing Thought
I hope, if you didn't already know what thoughtforms were, you're excited to try them out. They're so much fun! Keep in mind that they are still something "living." You are a parent. Be responsible like one, just like you're supposed to be responsible with your tattoo. Give it attention and love and don't neglect it, and you'll find it is some of the coolest magick you can do.

¹Moreman, Christopher M (2013). "The Spiritualist Movement," Speaking with the Dead in America and around the World, 216-219.
²"Play spooky for me," The Times, March 6, 2004. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/play-spooky-for-me-69gf6jvfmt2