The international renown of local artist ManWoman — in particular his lifelong mission to reclaim the ancient symbol of the swastika back to its original spiritual meanings — was in evidence last month, with invitations to take part in a pair of cultural events in Europe.

ManWoman and his wife Astarte, also known as Dr. Sellars, just returned from a three-week trip to Ireland and Denmark. ManWoman was guest speaker, showing slides and talking about the many sacred uses of the swastika, at a Traditional Tattoo and World Culture Festival in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland, held July 10-11 (traditional tattoos are done by hand-poking, using no machines).

The impetus for the Ireland trip was an invitation to take part in a documentary called “My Swastika,” on reclaiming the ancient sacred swastika. The film is due out in 2011. It is directed by Dominick Crowley and produced by Phil Cummins, a famous Irish tattoo artist. “They wanted to have me in it because they considered me the founder of the movement (to reclaim the swastika away from the stigma attached to its use by the Nazis),” ManWoman said.

While abroad, ManWoman was interviewed by several tattoo magazines, including those of Ireland, the UK, France, Germany and Holland. Bizarre Magazine of London and Tattoo TV also did interviews about the growing movement to reclaim the swastika.

Famous tattoo artists from Germany, Austria, Denmark, Indonesia, Manchester, London and the U.S. were tattooing at the Cobh festival.

ManWoman was also asked to do several tattoos himself. “Some of the better tattoo artists wanted me to tattoo a little swastika on them, to collect something from me.”

Coincidentally, ManWoman was also invited to be the guest speaker at an underground music festival called Nakkefestival, in Denmark immediately after the Ireland event. While there, he visited Carlsberg Beer in Copenhagen, where four giant stone elephants marked with sacred swastika sun-wheels guard the entrance. Carlsberg Beer first started using the swastika on their labels in 1881, “a long time before the Nazis showed up.” The brewery stopped using the symbol in 1938, but it's still in evidence on their buildings.

ManWoman's presentation involves “the mystical experiences that woke me up as a young artist, and going up into the source … whatever you want to call sacred space — love, peace, truth, creativity — and how that was always represented in my dreams by a swastika.”

The presentation follows through the history of the symbol, and how the movement to reclaim it has especially taken off with the advent of the internet.

“It feels good to me,” ManWoman said. “I had no idea when I started this 40 years ago that I would see any real success in my lifetime. It's amazing how it's taking off. After all those years of feeling pretty isolated, like I'm maybe the one guy — then finally I met a couple of people who were interested, then a couple more. But when the internet opened up, that started it.

“I've been online since 1997, and right now it's really beginning to blossom.”