I found this post in my old myspace blog and brought it here - its as relevant as ever and connects also to the tattoos my children wear and the gift my son has given my daughter for Christmas. His letter to her follows my original post.
I love
my tattoo - love that it sits on my back and that sometimes i forget
that i have it and the sight of it surprises and delights me again!
I had been told that people rarely only have one tattoo - that the marking of the body the first time leads to other markings - but I was determined to have only my dragonfly. the mark that it is speaks of a ending in my life - the end of my marriage and the loss of the husband I loved. he chose to love another and in that doing became someone i didn't know. My dragonfly marks that moment - the double edged sword again - the loss balanced by the reclaiming of self, curious how that works!
When my sister started chemotherapy and I shaved my head so she wasn't alone I discovered two things. the first that I love not having hair and prefer not to grow it and secondly that i yearn a little for another tattoo.
the one I want is different from the subtle and hidden dragonfly - I want wings on the back of my head - I want the protective wingsof Ma'at - the Egyptian goddess of the soul and the soul's journeying - wings to celebrate my self's survival.
After that thought - of bright and coloured Egyptian wings curled around my skull from ears to the spine's summit I thought of a tree - again a mythic image, Yggdrasil - the earth tree with his roots at the base of my spine and his truck stretched to my head. the power and force of natures strength, my strength made visible on my skin.
I don't know if I am brave enough to wear these markers but in my mind they are there.
It reminds me of a friend I knew in my teens. He liked to get stoned, take his clothes off and paint his skin - he would sit naked in a tree in the rain and watch the patterns as they emerged on his skin. he told me that sometimes he wouldn't paint but sit naked in the rain imagining the patterns that would be there if he had painted.
my full back tattoo is like that!!
I had been told that people rarely only have one tattoo - that the marking of the body the first time leads to other markings - but I was determined to have only my dragonfly. the mark that it is speaks of a ending in my life - the end of my marriage and the loss of the husband I loved. he chose to love another and in that doing became someone i didn't know. My dragonfly marks that moment - the double edged sword again - the loss balanced by the reclaiming of self, curious how that works!
When my sister started chemotherapy and I shaved my head so she wasn't alone I discovered two things. the first that I love not having hair and prefer not to grow it and secondly that i yearn a little for another tattoo.
the one I want is different from the subtle and hidden dragonfly - I want wings on the back of my head - I want the protective wingsof Ma'at - the Egyptian goddess of the soul and the soul's journeying - wings to celebrate my self's survival.
After that thought - of bright and coloured Egyptian wings curled around my skull from ears to the spine's summit I thought of a tree - again a mythic image, Yggdrasil - the earth tree with his roots at the base of my spine and his truck stretched to my head. the power and force of natures strength, my strength made visible on my skin.
I don't know if I am brave enough to wear these markers but in my mind they are there.
It reminds me of a friend I knew in my teens. He liked to get stoned, take his clothes off and paint his skin - he would sit naked in a tree in the rain and watch the patterns as they emerged on his skin. he told me that sometimes he wouldn't paint but sit naked in the rain imagining the patterns that would be there if he had painted.
my full back tattoo is like that!!
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