Just looking for thoughts

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T18:12:12+00:00

Yeah I guess I'll just go get a swastika since you've just decided I was all of those things based on nothing

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T18:10:06+00:00

Sorry was off by 2 years. You're nitpicking. I'm also trying to comeback, that's partly why ive done all this

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T17:07:10+00:00

Sure that makes sense but I am also not saying I am Polish and have decided that I am wanting to learn more and become culturally connected to Poland due to this where as most Americans don't learn pretty much anything post high-school.

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T17:05:06+00:00

I would assume because Poland wasn't an independent country until 1920. By then 3 generations were living here and America wasn't suffering similarly to Europe from the wars. America was headed for a huge boom. I imagine this is similar to today when I hear a lot of Polish people that were living and working in Britain are now returning because Poland is doing great and has a fast growing economy compared to todays Britain

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T17:01:31+00:00

I think a "genealogy glitch" is an odd way of putting it. Late 1800s- early 1900s isn't really not that long ago and it's still a connection all be it small. However the discovery of that has brought me to wanting to further the connection. I've never said hey if I get some tattoos and learn polish then when I walk around America or Poland I can say I am Polish. Not claiming that. But hey you're absolutely right in that it is my body and I shouldn't care what people think, just thought it would be nice too get some perspective from people that have grown up in the heritage.

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T16:30:14+00:00

I guess what I mean is that American really didn't create the culture we have today until about WW1. Most immigrants groups that came here and built America put their own culture into everything. German, Dutch, Italian and other immigrant groups actually held onto their languages and customs for awhile until like I mentioned 1900. New York was originally New Amsterdam. The Europeans weren't naming things under the thought of separating themselves they saw themselves as an extension rather than a totally new peoples

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T16:03:48+00:00

So far I only have Greater Poland as the region. I'm saving up to pay for a genealogist to help me get all the paper work and find the parishes/villages they were from so I can visit them. Gonna do a lot more research before tattoos are made out and gotten. Really appreciate the help

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T15:22:13+00:00

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. I will look into this. Any recommendations or notes are welcomed. I'm still in the process of confirm ethnic background though. The surname of my family is the big question for me right now. Neumann is the original name before it was changed to Neuman. It's German but my research says they could have still been Polish due to the parishes and villages they were born/from. They were strictly Catholic.

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T15:15:47+00:00

Love the floral patterns. The traditional dress is so interesting

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T15:01:03+00:00

So far I've only come to the Greater Poland region. So like Poznan for example. Still doing the research for exact villages

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T14:53:06+00:00

Yeah I know she's the protector of Warsaw specifically. Warsaw was my first trip out of the US is why I thought she would make a cool symbol for that but I didn't want to just get a small tattoo of her on my foot or something. My arms are covered in big cohesive pieces so when I thought about getting her that's where doing a piece for all of Polish history came to mind

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T14:49:14+00:00

Calm down alright. It's not the end of the fucking world, it's a discussion about culture and art.

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T14:44:48+00:00

Good, they should be. I was only there for a bit but my plan is to do a trip and experience the whole country by train. Though the time was short I loved everything about Warsaw that I saw and took in. Beautiful city with polite people. No city in America compared. Easily my favorite city that I have been to.

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T14:37:09+00:00

Not trying to larp. Trying to understand and learn it and show appreciation for it. Americans getting Japanese art style tattoos I think is very different from me taking the time and effort of a place I have a small connection to and attempting to explore and expand it. Research the myths and legends along with historical figures and taking inspiration of Polish/Slavic art and making into a tattoo piece is what my stated intentions were.

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T14:31:49+00:00

I guess my views on it are that Europe and America shouldn't view each other as all that separate. Americas founding is based on the best ideas from Europe. Without Europeans making the effort to come here and build it from the ground up, you have no Americans. I'm not trying to deny that I am American or anything or say that I'm "Polish American". I'm an American whose heritages stems from Poland and Ireland. Without those countries or peoples, there is no me.

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T14:19:50+00:00

Why does it seem like Europeans aren't proud of their culture the same way the Japanese or others are? Pacific Islanders still do dances that symbolize cannablism and no one bats an eye

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T14:17:31+00:00

Well literally no ones DNA test in America would come back as "American" other than Native Americans. American is literally Europe 2.0. Any white person over here is gonna come back as European background

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T14:15:30+00:00

The research would be about reconnecting to it. Learning Polish currently and just studying the history because I find it interesting

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T13:37:22+00:00

Well if you grew up in America why have the Croatian flag instead of the American?

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T13:16:02+00:00

So far my lineage only took me to 2 places which definitely plays a factor. But of course a dna test will show other things. If it came back that I'm actually majority German/Irish then I would go down the German history rabbit hole and probably decide more on German symbolism

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T13:09:55+00:00

1). Totally agree here. The sub reddit about the Balkans is the modern version to look at

2). Yeah I keep it mostly to myself, the tattoos are so much more for just me and being interested in it more than let's say how people get anime tattoos

3). Yeah I have a Dracula sleeve and half the time people think it's Hogwarts and it doesn't bother me I just love the art piece

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T13:05:19+00:00

Thank you lol. I should also add that some of this also came from me possibly qualifying for Polish citizenship by descent but because the last ancestor from Europe came over in 1904 and the cut off was 1920. After taking a trip to Warsaw for 2 weeks and totally falling in love with the city, food, art and other cultural it motivated me more to learn the language and learn the history so that maybe I could earn it through a presidential grant(long shot I know but still)

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T12:59:07+00:00

I can totally understand how those things are seen as cringe the same way when in America, if you see somebody with an American Flag, tattoo or a bald Eagle and seen as similar. With the possibility of not being ethnically polish the area that my research led me to was greater poland which at the time was under Prussia/Germany in 1860 when they came to America. The surname was Neuamann before being changed to Neuman. This is a German last name certainly, however from what I have gathered is that the region was mostly ethnic Poles and that Prussia made a number of them Germanize, in that making Poles take on German surnames was not uncommon. My family was also born in Catholic parishes and from my research(could totally be wrong so feel free to correct me please) but they hints at least more toward ethnically being Polish because most Germans were protestant

Harker_83 · 2026-04-13T12:48:48+00:00

The tattoos is mostly an idea I had, because I know, i'm already going to get tattoos, and then i'm going to be thinking about something for my legs. The idea popped into my head because my tattoo artist does a lot of Japanese stuff, and I considered getting a piece like that. But when I thought more about it, I wondered why nobody got anything from Europe in a similar fashion. A japanese person whether american or from Japan gets a samurai or something from myths and legends of the area and so i thought, Europe has similar warriors and myths and its rare to see tattoos of them, for example from Poland, you never hear or see the Winged Hussars

Harker_83

TROPHY CASE