Holy mackerel, it’s May already!!! 😉
I love that expression. My dearly beloved, late Dad used to use it often and whenever I come across it, in my mind I hear his voice saying it.
Today’s lovely heart-based Meckerel tangle is from Japanese CZT Hiroko Matsuo, and although it’s been a while since we heard from her this makes her sixth tangle on the site.
Hiroko shares how she came up with her heart-shaped Meckerel tangle,
In February, many people drew heart tangles around Valentine’s Day and I was one of them. When I was drawing a 3z tile, I came up with this heart tangle. It’s a bit like Waybop, but it doesn’t start with seeds, but with a heart.
As for the name, we have a verb “mekureru” in Japanese, which means to “be flipped over” or “be folded over.” In this tangle, one of the hearts is folded over. So I thought it good to have a name that sounds similar to the Japanese verb. Then I found a fish name “mackerel” and thought it would be easier to spell similar to the fish name. So, I changed the “a” into “e” and named it “meckerel” which still sounds very similar to the verb “mekureru.” (It may sound weird to English speakers but in Japanese, we don’t really differentiate r/l sounds somehow.)
Hiroko illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Meckerel below and she includes another beautiful ZIA tile featuring her tangle.
Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. These images are for your personal offline reference only. Please feel free to refer to the images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to the images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. (Small side note: if you look at the legalese in Pinterest, you are legally responsible for obtaining permission to post every photo that gets ‘Pinned’. Giving credit or sharing the source link doesn’t count.) Thank you for respecting these rights. “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” ~ Albus Dumbledore
In these steps Hiroko illustrates a variation to the original Meckerel:
As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours. Your thanks helps motivate them to continue to share! And please share a link to your favorite tangles on social media. Thanks!
Check out the tag hirokom for more of Hiroko’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
Related Links
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- What is a Zentangle? — if you are new to the Zentangle Method, start here for the fundamentals.
- Zentangle terminology — a glossary of terms used in this art form.
- How to use the site — an excellent free video tutorial showing how to use the site as well as pointing out lots of useful features you might have missed.
- Linda's List of Zentangle-Original Patterns — here is the complete list of original tangles (aka "official tangles") created and introduced by founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, including those not published online. If you are new to the Zentangle Method I highly recommend learning a few of the published Zentangle classics first.
- "A Zentangle has no up or down and is not a picture of something, so you have no worries about whether you can draw a hand, or a duck. You always succeed in creating a Zentangle." Patterns that are drawings of a recognizable naturalistic or actual object, figure, or scene, are not tangles. A pattern is not always a tangle — here's what makes a tangle. TIP: tangles never start with pencil planning.
- Un motif n’est pas toujours un tangle — Qu’est-ce qu’un tangle ?
- Un diseño no es siempre un tangle — ¿Qué es un tangle?
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May 2, 2025 | 
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Beautiful!! I soooooo love how Zentangle allows (actually, encourages) us to find a simple way to start a tangle by “deconstructing” it. Hiroko, I would have struggled to “figure out” how to draw Meckerel … but your very clear stepout makes it simple to create! Thank you. 🙂