**disclaimer: If you are sensitive, easily offended, have kids around or at work you may want to skip this post due to a photo included.**
I may or may not have mentioned this before, but I am fascinated with tattoos. Yes, I do plan on getting inked. Thirties or not, it’s goin’ down. Lol. And I know I’m in good company b/c I’ve talked about this with a few friends who are around my age and older who want a tatt, also. This has been in the making for awhile but, much like my dance was with going natural, I’ve been a little chicken about it. At this point, I’m beyond that. I’ve even called around for prices. Uhh, those things ain’t cheap, are they?... Anyhoo, when I do go for it (within the next 12 months), I’ll definitely post about it. I’m sure it will be an experience.
The above photo of singer Kelis ( and yes, I miss her big hair) shows a much better view of her back tattoo. This is my inspiration. Mine will be a fraction of this size. Much much much smaller and hidden. I so love this work of art. I would love to know the artist who did this. I used to want a tiger but now I’m leaning more towards the lotus flower.
Note. The Lotus flower basically symbolizes the clarity of heart as well as the mind. In other words the Lotus flower represents strength, good luck, long life as well as honor and respect. Some scholars have even talked of the lotus flower being a universal representation of the spiritual presence in human
Let’s examine the word “tattoo”.
“The word tattoo comes from the Tahitian word tattau, which means “to mark”. Not too long ago in the U.S., tattoos were considered taboo and were frowned upon by the majority of society. They were typically found on bikers, ex-convicts, and what most considered the black sheep of society. Throughout world history, they have been done as rites of passage, marks of status and rank, signs of religious and spiritual devotion, marks of fertility, punishment, as the mark of an outcast, slave and conflict, etc. They have been used to brand Jews in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Sailors from Europe used to have the picture of Christ tattooed on their backs for protection from flogging since it was considered a crime to defile Christ’s image. These days, they are applied more for cosmetic and aesthetic use and to show their affiliation with a certain group (i.e. gangs, fraternities). For others, it’s simply a form of self-expression. “
You can read more info. on the history of tattoos here.
There’s also a very good documentary on tattoos. It’s called “Ancient Ink “and is about 90 minutes long. In this documentary you follow the host as he learns about the various techniques and traditions of the tattoo and testing them on his own body we go all the way from the Maori of New Zealand to Hawaii to the yakuzas of Japan to a high-security penitentiary in Phoenix, Arizona to a sideshow museum in North Carolina. All these different facets of life the tattoo touched on (from the criminal underworld of Yokohama to the native traditions of Hawaii) are reasonably explained and will provide excellent starting threads for anyone wishing to dug deeper in the history of body painting. They show it from time to time on the history channel.
Are you inked? If so, what is the image and what does it mean to you?
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