How do people feel about altering cards?

Hemera

Apart from trimming I have also filled in some eyes to empty eye sockets in some cards. I have also added color to the Aquarian Tarot backgrounds.
I do altered art (altered books) so I´ve got used to altering images, I guess. But if I alter a tarot deck very much I usually get another copy of the deck that I do not change at all.I don´t really know why. Maybe it makes me feel less guilty about the altering thing or something? :D
 

Rabbit

Lyric said:
I put some pants on a guy on one card in the World Spirit with a permanent marker, but that was the only time I absolutely couldn't live with a card as it was. I really don't care what color hair people have or things like that. I just use them as they are, usually. Nothing bothers me enough to alter the cards.

Yea, I want to put a bra and underpants on nude women and pants on men too. It may sound childish, but I don't like it. I tend to not buy decks with nudity and I think I only have one or two. However the nudies in the R-W do not bother me because they are not realistic.
I think it stems back to my childhood and my mother who was sexually inappropriate with me.
 

ana luisa

I´ve never altered my decks but I think I would if I needed to. The decks are tools. If you need to adjust them so you can "work" better with them, why not? Unless you want to treat them as works of art and keep your collection in pristine condition, cards are created to be "used". I also hear of people who are very worried about handling books so as no to damage them . Same thing. All my books have been really well-loved. I write notes on them, take them on trips, even to the beach. After all, what´s sacred is our spirit, not the instrument we use to get in touch with it.
 

Deana

I have one deck that I have truly altered: The Sacred Circle

First, I took a black sharpie marker and blacked out the keywords on the minor arcana because they had nothing in common with how I read. You could see the different color of black on black, so I took a silver sharpie marker and wrote my own keywords and now you can't tell I blacked some out but you can tell I wrote my own. ;)

Secondly, her major arcana didn't work at all for me. Some of the cards were just wrong, IMO, like the artwork on the Magician and Hierophant cards was reversed. And some had been renamed and the new names added nothing. I blacked out all the names on the majors with the black marker and waited until I had forgotten what they'd been called originally. I sold the book to Half Price Books so I couldn't even look them up. Then I took the silver marker and wrote my own names for the majors on whatever card worked for me.

My alterations changed it from a deck that would sit on the shelf and never, ever get used to a deck that I actually reach for now and then. I wouldn't read with it for a client because it looks a bit childish; it reminds me of something I would have done as a teenager, especially the way the silver handwriting looks against the black background. But it works for me now.

Having said that, I am done altering decks. The decks I have trimmed or altered have all gone down in value, not just in market value, but in use value. They look amateur so I don't use them for clients, so they have limited value to me.
 

MariaAZ

I don't have any problem with the concept of altering a card. In my opinion, the art on the card is the artist's impression, and since you are using the deck, personalizing it in such a manner so that it becomes YOUR impression is perfectly acceptable.

That being said, I don't think I could bring myself to do it because I have this mental block about ME writing on already printed material like books and cards. Besides, some of the changes I'd love to make are really not feasable. I too have a Robin Wood deck that is my overall favorite of my small collection, but I would love to see some older and/or less physically perfect figures, people that I, as a middle-aged and rather rotund woman, could relate to more.
 

Deana

Speaking of "gray hair": in Robin Wood's book, she claims that the woman on the Judgement card has gray hair. Ha. (Actually, I liked and used the Robin Wood for years, but once I read the book I started actively hating the deck. Go figure.) I think the guy on the Lovers card is supposed to be uncircumcised, rather than poorly drawn. Then again, looking at the Hanged Man, I'm not sure.
 

manhattan9thgate

http://tinyurl.com/j4826

The Art Nouveau Tarot by Matt Myers
The Tarot Deck of Athennium

these 2 decks I can't use. can't take the images seriously, it's ludicrous.
like I said they all look like air-head Abercrombie models.

look at the picture of "Strength" in the link. a very seductive pose. the artist obviously has an obsession with long haired male blondes. living out a fantasy through tarot cards LMAO!!!

to me these are like barbie doll tarot decks.
for you professional readers I guess you have to have a diversified collection to suit your clients. I guess these are good for the narcissists who want a pretty deck they can "relate" to.

bwhaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha
 

shadowdancer

good question

I do trim some decks either because the card is too large for shuffling or the border is to plain/detracts from the card.
Not all cards lend themselves to trimming that is for sure, but mine have come alive as a result.

re: altering images I could not do that. I don't think my alterations would fit in with the art or appearance of the card, and would probably resemble what we see as graffitti on works of art.

I have got on order a deck where I can colour it to my satisfaction with colours of my choice etc. That is as far as I would go. Alter any artwork of a deck otherwise?? Nope, couldn't even consider it.

Strange eh?

Davina
 

Fulgour

The High Priestess

I didn't actually do anything to the card in my deck
but I made this change on the computer and have
printed it out card size and sometimes lay it out...
 

Attachments

  • PCS The High Priestess 1909.JPG
    PCS The High Priestess 1909.JPG
    57.4 KB · Views: 223

darwinia

manhattan9thgate said:
The Tarot Deck of Athennium

I've never seen that before. Definitely Fabio fan territory.

I have yet to see anything done in Poser that I can take seriously. Every picture seems to scream "I used Poser for this!"