Well, probably not like other people would do it but that's pretty much par for the course!
While hanging around in Quito, Marie was considering getting a tattoo put on her ear (it would not be the first one she has!). I did some doodling to try to come up with a nice design that would be elegant and not overly dark or strong. I successfully came up with something that I quite liked and I think Marie was OK with it too but for reasons I don't recall, the actual execution did not happen. I do recall that Marie tried quite hard to get me to get a tattoo myself. My response was that Id considered the idea in the past but never felt right about it with the following explanation.
For me to get a tattoo would require two things:
First, I would have to find a design/motif that I really connected with and that I would not get dissatisfied with over time, and this realistically meant that I would have to design it myself (since I have never seen something on someone else that I thought I´d want on my own skin).
Second, Id have to have some significant reason to do it. Ive never even had an ear pierced and never regretted the abstinence either. A tattoo is significantly more than that from my perspective and so is even less likely to happen. Ive just never been a "follower of the mob" and tattoos are definitely a bit of a pop item these days.
However, the design that I came up with for Marie´s ear was quite a good motif and I doodled away at it for a while and came up with a couple of modifications/extensions that I really liked and the designs stuck in my mind.
Now, months later after I have taken up meditating and encountered some of my inner light as well as some of my inner dark, I feel that these are significant events and worthy of remembering ... - but then again, that's what my memory is for!
...
But, Ive been thinking about my probable life back in Vancouver with all the hectic run-around. I m sure it will be far too easy to get caught up in all the hastle of day to day experiences and to forget about the stuff inside and how rewarding it can be and how completely unnecessary all that stress is.
So, I felt I would give myself a permanent and visible reminder to "disengage from the stress".
Thus I decided to get a couple of quite small tattoos on the insides of my wrists where they are very visible to me but not so much for others.
The low visibility for others is not at all because I´m trying to hide them from anyone, but I just don't feel the need to go around making bold public statements about myself through ink on my skin as it seems many people do.
Anyway, that's the genesis of it and here's what it looks like:
So, its official, Im now a "tattooed, skin head, biker"...
Who would have thought it - not me! - I must still be adventure touring I guess :)
