Giordano Bruno
Collector: Arlo
Artists: Manuel Cruz / Jon Mordin
Placement: Side/Ribs
Giordano Bruno was a contemporary of Galileo's. They were both imprisoned for heretical beliefs, but unlike Galileo who spent the last of his days under house arrest, Giordano was actually sentenced to death and burned at the stake in a central Roman square. My tattoo is based on the statue of Giordano Bruno that now stands at the site of his immolation. The Latin inscription accompanying the tattoo was from an epic line that was allegedly uttered by Bruno to his judges after receiving his death sentence, “Maiori forsan cum timore sententiam in me fertis quam ego accipiam,” or, “Perhaps you pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it.” Giordano gets low skeptical and science marks on the Skeptic Tattoos Meter because his heretical crimes were said not to be just of a scientific nature, but also mystical. Although Giordano Bruno may not represent the most elegant example of Skepticism, he remains an extremely potent symbol of the fight against dogmatism and, for extra bonus points, his statue looks like the Grim Reaper or an evil Sith lord (which totally boosted his badassery points)!