Imposter syndrome goblin

This project was a personal tattoo project to continue my patchwork sleeve. This goblin stands for the imposter syndrome that seem to hit all of us artists

The design is inspired by Saint Barthelemy, depicted as he died : skinned to death, carrying his own skin and the knife of his torturer.

The goblin is a figure of self acceptation: we all are goblins from time to time, ugly, stressed, powerless. There is a goblin archetype called a skin thief, which steals skins to disguise himself as someone else, and hide from danger or infiltrate somewhere. This goblin helps me to keep all of this in mind:

1. In both cases no one will ever notice you don’t fit and you’re an imposter. Either you’re too good a skinthief, or too good at your job.
2. When you’re making mistakes, *be proud of the goblin within you: it is learning
3. Someday you won’t need the goblin skinthief anymore : it means it’s time to move on to something new to learn, and be a skinthief somewhere else

This was meant to be inked on my own skin, it’s a personal piece, meant to be kept unique. But if you wznt one of yours, please get in touch with me and i’ll see what i can do to best fit your request