Tattoos For The Soul Pt.1

Tattoos represent the body as living art. In ancient times, tribes used tattoos as rites of passage, initiations, and other aspects of human experience. They are used in your modern society as announcements and displays of affections, emotions, and beliefs. Similar to marriage, tattoos are statements from the individual concerning the nature of personal reality.

In many ways, they are like caves of ancient times where man painted stories upon the walls, myths, legends, and codes that were passed on to future generations. The body art, or the body as art, whether pierced or painted, has been seen as cultural, religious, political, and spiritual ritual in many cultures. A living message board, tattoos shares with the world stages of life, the cycles of human life, its moments, joys, and sorrows, pain and pleasures, friends and enemies.

Even the smallest unnoticeable tattoos are symbols of a greater reality that is beyond the comprehension of human intellect. Tattoos are symbols, ideas represented by man’s ink, emotions captured through symbols. For instance, the tattoos for the dead are represented by name and symbols, memories, a living graveyard site, designed to honor the human personality and experience.

For many believe that they become more as a person with the imprint of tattoos, their consciousness is heightened by enduring pain, and a soul contract is made through the experience of tattooing. Tattoos are living reminders of what is sacred and important to the body consciousness.

Tattoos, I feel, are like the person who can only see out of one eye. They do not see the whole, only its parts, and relate to physical reality on the basis of their limited view of the soul. The soul endures many births and deaths, experiences, adventures that would shame many tattoo wearers. The soul is more than the physical body and nothing captures its totality. Therefore, tattoos become the outer ego’s attempt at broadcasting its life movie while others repeat ancient tribal customs. They become the outer manifestation of the myth of the human body and life.

Man has always sought to capture his stories through myths, legends, and fantasies. Tattoos are visual stories created to highlight the individual's mythical journey. And, yet man's soul is an ever-changing entity that cannot be captured by the limitations of ink.