Last night Glamberts were shocked and excited to see a new photo of Adam Lambert showing off the side of his chest on Instagram, but it was for a good and stunning reason. He got a new tattoo! (seen below)

The piece of Antinous was done by tattoo artist Maxime Buchi at Sang Bleu London Tattoo. But what does the tattoo stand for? Adam told fans to look him up, so we did.

It turns out that Antinous was known as The Gay God. Antinous drowned in the Nile river in October of the year 130. The local people of Egypt considered him a sacred being. They believed that anyone who drowned in the Nile was embraced by Osiris (god of the dead), and that the drowned person would become Osiris, rising up from the underworld to live forever as an immortal. Temples were even dedicated to Antinous, and a new cult was created to serve his worshipers.

The gentle gay religion of Antinous was the last piece of evidence of the ancient pagan faith (people who hold religious beliefs other than those of the main world religions), but “Christians found him as easy target in the supposedly questionable moral message that Antinous embodied. They used him as an example to illustrate that the Roman Religion had become a religion of pederasty, immoral sexual indulgence, and idolatry.”

The story of Antinous was preserved by the Church in documents denouncing paganism. Any images of him were buried underground by his worshipers to protect them from destruction, but hundreds of years later statues were discovered and were seen as treasures from the ancient age. The head of Antinous is known to be one of the greatest achievements of ancient art.

“Now in this day, as the Gay Spirit is returning to the world again without fear of death and violence, we find that Antinous has come again. His statues and Temples are uncovered, and his star is again shinning. But what is more significant is that here in this New Gay Religion, and in the hearts of homosexual men all over the world, his gentle spirit is rising up from the vineyards where long ago, the last priests buried his image, in expectation and hope for better days.”

“Gay Rights are now one of the most important social issues in the world. This is what Antinous has always stood for, what he represented in the ancient sense, and what he means now. Although Antinous is now a God, he was once a living human being, as real and as beautiful as any of us. Like Antinous, we are all immortal beings capable of becoming gods, that homosexuality is a sacred state of being, that it is a form of love and all forms of love are sacred and beautiful and worthy of our highest devotion and reverence. Antinous is the God of all Gay people, he was a homosexual, and it is therefore our calling as gay men to restore his name and the place of his religion to the reverence of his ancient past.”

Do you love Adam’s new tattoo and the meaning behind it? Let us know by tweeting us @CelebMix or commenting on our Facebook!

All Antinous facts were taken from antinopolis.org 

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