User blog:AClockworkOrange/Stan's Tattoo: The Real End to the Mystery

' NOW IN FULL! >:D ' PART 1 Stan's tattoo has been a mystery ever since we first noticed it. It was first notified in Mystery Shack Mystery in a cryptogram decoding to "EVER NOTICED STANS TATTOO".

Now it's time we put an end to this mystery.

For a while now we've been notified that there are altocumulus clouds at the top of the tattoo. In between it is a circle. However, on his back, the circle is filled. When it shows up on Bill Cipher in Dreamscaperers and when it shows up on the side of Stan's desk in Gideon Rises, it is blank.

The filled circle apparently represents an Overcast, and the blank circle represents a clear sky-which matches the altocumulus clouds next to it. It is at the top of the tattoo, which I will get back to soon.

At the bottom of the tattoo appears to look almost like two symbols for Iron facing each other, and on top of it is a diamond with a circle on it. The diamond+circle looks slightly like the portal in Stan's secret underground laboratory-UNDERGROUND. Meaning it is at the bottom, which I assume the iron also matches up with.

But the middle-the stick with the pointing arrows and dots under each arrow, is yet to be solved-so far I believe it is the weathervane of the shack, which I will go with until someone fills it in with an actual answer.

But the top of the tattoo is the sky, and the bottom of the tattoo is underground, which is starting to uncover the tattoo.

Until we figure out the middle of the tattoo, we can make a conclusion that the tattoo is basically from a high point to a low point.

PART 2

Welcome to Part 2 of anomaly #23 of Gravity Falls: Stan's tattoo.

I once said that, in the series, the inside of the circle at the top is FILLED, but, EF showed me an image I can no longer find, where Stan's tattoo is blank...but then...



And even the short itself with an extreme close-up:



So what could it mean? My guess is that it is a secret society symbol, and the MAIN symbol is blank-but each member of the society has the tattoo with a different circle. There are four circles close to each other representing weather casts:


 * Plain Circle: CLEAR (The Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel; Book Author?)
 * Half Full/Half Empty Circle: PARTY CLOUDY (?)
 * Full Circle: OVERCAST (Stan Pines)
 * Circle with circle inside: CALM (?)

The Stan twin theory states of four people in the society: Stanford, Stanley (the twin), and Bill-the other one wrote the books, but due to a spoiler consensus I may not speak his name.

But there are only four circles...meaning the main circle (the clear one) is probably given to the one with highest power in the society, whom I guess to be the author.

The image EF gave me (once again, do not have the link) shows Stan with the blank circle. However, since in all his other appearances it is full, we will assume that is an animation error.

But the middle part is yet to be solved. It looks the mostly like Latin cross, but they obviously wouldn't use THAT in the show. Then again, the book I got has limited symbols...yet it is still amazingly helpful.

SECRET SOCIETY SYMBOLS

FIG. A Various Secret Society Symbols

''Secret societies are (typically) fraternal orders that have been associated with everything from controlling international government to forbidden rituals to being a bunch of old guys playing gin rummy and complaining about their wives. They feature strange symbols like the ones you see above. One particularly sinister, mysterious order features a eye with a red x through it. Many rumors have flown around about these organizations, but here are some stone cold facts about secret societies. All secret societies worship a hyper-intelligent barn owl named Duane “The Enforcer” Roosevelt.''



I hope that, before people start saying anything about the eye with the red X through it (a.k.a. blindeye) being a secret society symbol, perhaps the society could have multiple symbols. The banner hung in the mystery shack could be the main symbol, and the unfilled circle on the side of Stan's desk is just in honor of the author, and the blindeye could be a rival society.

But who knows what the blindeye is yet. SEARCH FOR THE BLINDEYE appears to relate to this, so not only could Search for the Blindeye be the name of the society, but "they" could be the mysterious runners of the site-the domain itself being a foreshadow of the actual relevation.

"Finally, I have them all."

---Stan, Gideon Rises

One question I still ask is: why did Stan want to get the books from the author? I know about the portal and all, but how come the author couldn't just help him finish it? Could it be that Stan is no longer friends with the author in the society? Could it be that he ditched him and went off to the blindeyes?

But that seems confusing - since the blindeye sounds like something Bill would be in, and Bill appears to be an enemy of Stan. In Dreamscaperers, Bill flashed a picture of Stanley (see details here - WARNING! SPOILERS ON LEAKED IMAGE), and then the tattoo. Thing I don't understand is that it was blank, yet on Stan's back it is filled-plus Gideon said "Stanford" after all. So how is this supposed to work out?

Could the tattoo being filled be the animation error in general? Things are overloading my head and now it is all jumbled up rather than being a smooth theory.



Could the symbol Dipper circled instead be the one we are looking for when it comes to the secret society? It could be the society's symbol, and the blank circle could still belong to Stan - while any filled instances being animation errors. Considering what we've gone through I doubt that isn't an error.

PART 3 While I originally said the circle at the top meant clear sky/overcast/etc. I have second thoughts on that top part.

Apparently a blank circle also means Full Moon. And at what time did Stan enter the vending machine in Tourist Trapped?



A full moon. "Why would there be altocumulus clouds on the moon?" The portal Stan is making goes to infinite new worlds. ONE OF THEM could have altocumulus clouds on the moon. However, the one on Stan's back is filled. A filled circle also means New Moon - could Stan have gotten the tattoo during a new moon?

I've made my final decision on the middle part: The weathervane. And the dots on the weathervane are rain.

Now for a list of what it is unofficially, top to bottom, left to right:


 * Altocumulus Cloud
 * New Moon/Full Moon OR Clear Sky/Partly Cloudy Sky/Overcast/Calm Sky
 * Altocumulus Cloud


 * Weathervane
 * Rain
 * Rain


 * Universe portal


 * Iron
 * Eternity/Immortality
 * Iron

That is my final decision until I attempt to bug my mom into getting me a more advanced symbol art book. Once I do, I will try to see if anything else could match.

I also made a teeny fanart representing the tattoo.

Until anything else comes up, The end!

http://images.wikia.com/pandaland/images/7/7e/Bill_Cipher.gif I'll be watching you... http://images.wikia.com/pandaland/images/7/7e/Bill_Cipher.gif