My Lady Sedna

"My Lady Sedna" 17"x22" Digital. Amanda Zito. 2014. 

Sedna is the goddess of the sea and marine animals in Inuit mythology. There are many versions of her creation myth, however most of them end with her father throwing her into the sea and cutting off her fingers. Her fingers become the seals, walruses, whales and other creatures of the ocean. Sedna then becomes a mighty sea goddess and ruler of the Inuit underworld. 

An image I started /AGES/ ago and can't seem to get it where I want it to be, so here it is. 
One of the things I found fascinating while doing research for this image was the facial tattooing among Inuit tribes. My favorite quote from the book I read was about the chin stripes, according to anthropologist Sergei Bogojavlensky; "It was believed that a girl who smiled and laughed too much would cause the lines to spread and get thick. A girl with a full set of lines on the chin, all of them thin, was considered to be a good prospect as a wife, for she was clearly serious and hard working."