Kill the Twojans.
And the aegis — don’t forget that 
There are entire books on the subject; I will just cut and paste from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology:
Maybe you can use this person as a model.
I’ve been a big mythology fan since before I could read. I can’t think of any real negatives about Athena. She was vain. But who among the Olympians was not vain and proud? I don’t know of any modern group that has co opted her as a symbol.
Paging @CalMeacham He wrote a book on gorgons. I think his input would be valuable here.
Gee, thanks for thinking of me. I’ve been away this weekend.
There aren’t too many things against Athena, I admit She was the goddess who helped several heroes, including Perseus (even though both movie versions of Clash of the Titans changed his guardian to Zeus). she also helped Jason (that’s one the movies got right), Hercules, and Odysseus.
There are a couple of things that make her not-so-nice. She was said to have turned Arachne into a spider when she beat the goddess at a weaving contest. On the other hand, I have to note that this looks like pretty late myth. It’s in Ovid and Vergil, and Ovid had a reputation for making things up and adding to the myths. As far as I know, there are no ancient Greek sources for the story.
On the other hand, she’s the one who was said to have struck the seer (and famously double-sexed) Teiresias blind when he saw her bathing, and that story goes back to Pherekydes in the 6th century BCE.
She’s also supposed to have wounded Ornytos and his family, but he DID stab her in the thigh. And, again, it’s a late story.
Overall, Athena would be an appropriate heroine. And she had lots of famous attributes – the helmet, the spear. The Aegis was supposed to be Zeus’ shield or cloak, but Athena is more often depicted with it in art. Her shield was the one that was supposed to bear the gorgon’s head, although in art that’s usually the shield of Achilles.
Thank you so much!
And yes, I am aware of some of her - alleged - more spiteful traits. To me none of those are enough to put me off the tattoo. I actually like the Greek gods’ “human” characteristics.
Well, she is a bit of a daddy’s girl.
She was always on his mind.
She could also be a real headache, though.
When designing your tattoo, you need to give much thought to one issue of vital, critical, fundamental, world-shattering importance:
Her helmet: Athenian, or Corinthian?
Also, the gorgon’s head:
- Yea, or nay?
- If yea, will it be on her shield, or on her breastplate?
Definitely yea.
And I’ve seen her with the gorgoneion on BOTH breastplate and shield.
I can’t seem to find anything about an Athenian-style helmet online. Did you mean the Attic helmet?
Overview of Greek helmets:
Statues of Athena invariably appear to be wearing what that article calls “Corinthian”, with no crest:
OK, but in the image you yourself posted
she has a bitching helmet with a huge crest and griffin. And on this (centuries later) coin
she has something yet again different.
This is the kind she’s usually depicted wearing.
Check out my link - that looks like an Attic helmet.
On the coin, it could be a pushed-back Corinthian, or it could be a Pilos.
Now THOSE look great! I was going to pop in to mention that almost every tattoo portraying a face looks a little “off” or amateurish. A real shame when someone gets ink of their infant kid, who ends up looking like Yoda got punched in the face.
(I have a poker buddy who has a tattoo of his own face… okayyyy… we tell him that when his real face matches his tattoo, he’ll be officially “old”).
But if you can find a shop that’ll do as well as those google-image Athenae, go for it.
Actually, the style I want is completely different. Might not be for everyone, but I love this artist. Can I link to Instagram here? I will try. Here is one she did of Ulysses which I love:
And good point about the helmet. Personally, I prefer the Attic style, but I would leave it up to the artist after making sure that any certain style wouldn’t be a completely absurd faux-pas. I feel the fact that the style I like isn’t very realistic gives me a little leeway. However, I wouldn’t want someone who knew bit more about it to say “that’s just silly”. Like all the people who have Irish themes tattoos with a four-leaved clover. 