Embe

The Embe is a tattoo worn on the back of the right hand by members of the Cognomina, a secret society of reincarnating individuals who associate with one another in each successive incarnation. According to The Reincarnationist Papers (a repackaging of the memoir of Evan Michaels) the symbol is meant to be a graphical representation of the three pyramids of Giza where members gathered every year on the summer solstice before the clandestine organization moved to Zurich in the 9th century.
The tattoo itself is unique in that it is applied, even in the present day, with ancient techniques using sharpened bone implements .
Historical References
There exist two historical references to the Cognomina. The oldest comes from the Konstanz Codex (1493). Largely a heraldic work by Konrad Grunenberg, it contains a brief reference to a Zurich based guild in which the members carry a distinctive crossed-flail tattoo on the backs of their right hand. A more recent reference comes from noted Swiss historian Ludwig Meyer von Knonau in his Handbuch Geschichte der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (1826 edition only; the entry was curiously removed from the 1829 2nd volume rerelease) in which he describes "a secretive group of landed nobles in Zurich that locals described as auslanders, who all carried the same crossed mark on the backs of their hands as if a brand."
Current examples

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See Also

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