This is something I wrote many years ago, but wanted to post it as my computer is crashing... don't want to forget about it.
When I was 17 I started playing with the idea of getting a tattoo. I didn't know what I wanted, where, or how badly. I thought well, it's cool, it's neat; isn't this what is in? I bounced ideas off of many people, watching their face expressions for that clue that my idea was either really unique or just plain dumb. I got plenty of the 'plain dumb' stares. The problem was I didn't know exactly what I wanted to express. Maybe now that I think about it, the real problem was that I didn't look at it as a way of expression at all. I just came up with symbols that I liked and didn't take the time to see how it really tied into ME as a unique being.
I was stuck on this idea for about two years so I decided to speak to a friend of mine about it. Ian has plenty of experience with tattoos, as a good portion of his body has been covered. I felt that his insight would not only be helpful, but needed. When explaining my idea to him I was hoping to see an indication that my idea was really 'unique'. Instead he smirked slightly then proceeded to tell me in an ever so polite way that my idea was just plain dumb. The problem was, I had no respect for the history, the beauty that is represented in tattoo work.
I once read that if the average body were to be laid flat as a map, it would cover twenty square feet. That if only Leonardo da Vinci realized this, he would have had a canvas four times the size of the Mona Lisa. We are story tellers by nature. For thousands of years stories have been engraved on a multitude of surfaces, allowing us to draw others near, to explain who and what we are; to celebrate in the transformation of the human spirit. This is what being tattooed is, and should be all about. A way for us to tell our stories, share our experiences, celebrate our age.
In the ancient times, there were many different reasons one might bear the pain of being marked; cultural identity, ancestral heritage, even a spiritual connection. To endure that type of excruciating pain was to not only pass the initiation from innocence to experience, childhood to maturity, but also to establish a connection between oneself and the spirits. To be decoratively scarred was to be human, and to be human was to know the gods.
Now days it arises in societies pressed down by globalization, stressed by overpopulation, and individuals struggling against a loss of identity. While the reasons for being tattooed may have changed and we do not look at it as a way to bring the 'spirit world' into existence, there still inlays this beauty that surrounds it if you dare look. We are all looking for a way to celebrate the uniqueness of ourselves, to tell our stories, to be tied to a culture that is now so immersed with others that its existence is fading. And so it may be, that for some of us, we will etch our stories as our ancestors have. We will share our experiences. We will press upon this world our ideas and visions. And do so in a way that is full of beauty, of history, of respect for those that have past.
It is with this knowledge that I was finally able to decide what I wanted. It is this knowledge, and the artwork that I have chosen, that reminds me daily to remain balanced, centered, and full of tranquility. Of what I have gone thru and what I need to hold close to my heart.
"Just as we have marked the earth with our stories, so have we drawn marks of self-expression upon our own sacred geography, our skin, the most intimate canvas of all."
