Facts of the Tats
A shallow dive in the deep waters of tattoos to find hidden treasures.
Historically, Tattoos have been around since 5000 BC. Get your head around that, and you’ll start looking at tattoos as a way of life.
A bold statement? It’s what I believe, and it is with that belief I want to explore and give you path you can search to find meaning.
What do you think about tattoos, and what do they mean to you?
If they bare no interest to you, I get that, but we don’t know anything about the weather, yet it’s part of our daily conversation.
The majority of us (generally speaking) have no interest in politics, but we all have an opinion on how to run our country.
My point is, that tattoos have been part of our evolution, and attention should be paid to them because they are the ultimate way to express ourselves for others to understand “we are connected”.
A few facts;
Religious beliefs — Specifically, Christianity. There’s a mysterious passage in the bible that has been interpreted as sinful if you mark your skin.
The passage in the bible is in Leviticus 19:28; its exact translation is: “And a cutting for the dead you will not make in your flesh, and writing marks you will not make on you; I am the Lord.” Some modern-day versions of the Bible do have the word tattoo written in the translation, and then it reads: “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.”
You may read that and think it makes a strong argument, but the word tattoo did not come into the English language until the 18th century; the literal translation of the Bible does not write tattoo at any point.
This passage is the only place where body modifications are mentioned in the entire bible.
The bottom line. It’s how you interpret things. If you are Christian, the Leviticus passage was written in response to the mutilations, body scarring, and other acts of body modifications used for sacrifices. There’s no mention in the New Testament about injecting your skin with ink, so interpret as you will, but I see no sin here.
Ancient Egypt and India used tattoos as methods of healing and religious worship.
Ancient Greeks and Romans tattooed their slaves and criminals so they could be easier to identify if they escaped.
Chinese also tattooed their criminals.
I had a conscious bias against Tattoos until I had what I would call enlightenment. It was empowering because it reinforced a challenge against social norms. Before I go on a world-famous tangent, let me pull it back and stay on course with the point. I was at a time in my life when I needed to start leaving evidence (2016)
In one of my social media posts within my Wealth in Health Group, I shared a significant part of my purpose and my meaning.
To be a good human, which by definition means to be of service.
The way I can stay on my path is by having a navigation thought. The thought belongs to mortality and living for something/someone more important than me.
The universe is more important than me, the world is more important than me, but I have zero connection to it because it’s untouchable, and some spiritual force has allowed me to play in their playground, but I’ve helped bring two little humans in this world, my twin sons. THEY are more important than me, and I want to leave evidence for them so they can see what a journey looks like to become a good human.
Everything etched on my body has meaning sparked from the enlightenment I had in 2016, and I try to act out what I have written on my skin daily.
My mind is popping with nostalgic memory, and relevant to this nugget, I’d like to share one of my favourite movies, Memento. A fascinated reverse engineered movie with such an intriguing storyline. There are no spoilers here, but the film starts at the end.
It captured my imagination because of the ingenious creative brain of the director Christopher Nolan. The leading actor was Guy Pearce, and he had temporary memory loss, so the only way he could remember things was to tattoo his body.
I relate greatly to that , Memento is a significant film that makes my search for purpose even more significant.
I hope these tattooed words have been permanent enough to give you tattooed thoughts and you’ll continue your journey to connect the dots.
