I was wise enough to work with the artist to come up with a decent rendering of a design I had kicking around in my head since my days in high school. This was opposed to just picking something off the wall or in a book (flash I believe they call it). I suppose there’s nothing too wrong with that, especially if what you pick out hits on a personal meaning for you, but considering the permanence of a tattoo I’d hope one would get something that has some personal significance to them rather than just picking something randomly that looked cool at the time. Because as we find out, our tastes and sensibilities change as we age and something of personal value withstands the scrutiny of time much better than a passing decision. Yet I find it amusing that what I did get included flames. One of the most standard features found on a tattoo. Not too original but hey better than some others; naked ladies or skulls anyone?
Seems I’ve veered a bit. So back to that urge I mentioned at the outset of this dissertation. I think the nagging feeling started way back during my trip to Amsterdam. My good travel friend had flirted with the idea of getting a tattoo while abroad. I mean we had to do something wild and crazy to mark our initial European adventure and where else but the crazy place of has bars and red lights? I think at that time, some three years ago, is when the urge planted a seed. Yet it never really blossomed because I lacked sufficient inspiration to make a permanent declaration. No I didn’t get Obama’s “O” tattooed anywhere.
I think the desire really had a resurgence following my trip to Taiwan and China. Becoming more enamored with that part of me I wanted a way to connect and express more of my Chinese heritage. And I’ve always had a fondness for the art and expression of Chinese calligraphy so it seemed like a good start for an idea. But I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to go that route with the recent spate of people getting Kanji all over the place. Yet the overriding idea I had kept lodging itself in my thoughts. What I settled on was a traditional Chinese stamped seal featuring the lone horse character (actually using a Chinese character, not Kanji which is the Japanese representation of Chinese characters). The idea was predicated on having my own personal seal as a simple visualization of who I am. The inspiration, no doubt, largely due to my being born in the year of the horse (according to the Chinese zodiac). But I’ve always had a deep affinity for horses. Nature’s incredible statement of beauty, power and grace. One only has to see a Friesian at play or strutting to know. Seeing a horse in person and to watch it gallop full tilt is just one of those awe inspiring things. Being a “horse” myself maybe that’s how I found myself running track? And of course in the Chinese zodiac the attributes of a horse would serve as an apt description of my personality. I only wish I was skilled at Chinese calligraphy so I could have drawn the character myself. But I’m not so I had it commissioned. But now maybe I’ll take up calligraphy as a hobby, a realistic way for me to finally be an artist…
Along with the stamp idea I had the notion of getting a quote or saying tattooed. I’m rather embarrassed to admit this, but the inspiration for this particular idea came from the movie Memento. A film in which Guy Pearce’s character had various clues tattooed all over his body. Now I wasn’t going to go out and get random quotes plastered all over but I did find it a nice stylized way to express my admiration of the power and art of the written word. And I liked the play of having a saying serve as tattooed art being the literal embodiment of the “words as art” sentiment. Of course the Chinese calligraphy achieved a similar purpose. But I was looking for something more and the dilemma was what else to say? What was an expression that was sentimental enough to me while at the same tiem something I would want expressed so overtly? I had various favorite quotes ranging from philosophers to Prince. I even considered paragraphs from particular speeches and writings. Like having a shape or image formed by the words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. But then my sense of subtleness brought me back from the edge. One particular quote has always kind of stuck with me since college; Thomas Paine’s, “My own mind is my own church”. In essence that’s how I’ve always felt about things. It was a slogan I’ve gravitated towards to explain my inherent sense of searching for knowledge, be it in truth, reason, spirituality. But the quote still wasn’t quite working enough for me to get it tattooed. Then I stumbled upon Tashi Mannox and his site while checking out various tattoo artwork. And by the by there’s some incredible stuff being done these days. For example. Anyway I saw examples of the work done by Mr. Mannox and read more about his Tibetan calligraphy and it just all clicked (over looking the irony of having Chinese and Tibetan calligraphy co-existing on one body).
Enlightenment. I haven’t converted to Buddhism or anything but the essence of it speaks a lot to my sensibility. The quest for knowledge coupled with introspection and its power to save us is what I found worth saying. Commissioning Tashi, a former monk and accomplished calligrapher, a piece of art was formed. “Until attaining enlightenment” became the saying I had translated in a beautiful Drucha script done by Mr. Mannox. Of course the calligraphy itself is a work of art, but that it is saying of personal significance makes it all the more special.
So that’s the story of how I arrived at the new decorative ink. The actual artist who did the tattooing was Matt Dunlap at the world-famous All or Nothing Tattoo studio. They do some pretty cool stuff.
I’d say I’m good for now as far as tattoos go but who knows. Even after that entire back story the basic desire came down to I just wanted something I thought would be cool. At least to my tastes anyway and something I’m fairly certain I could appreciate years on down the road. But what’s turning out to be really cool are the many subtexts of the tattoo designs I’ve chosen many of which have come to light after I decided on the designs. You know probably due to that knack we humans have for pattern recognition and 20/20 rear-view vision. Or, I don’t know, could have been fate the way things lined up?
I have to say there’s a certain delight in discovering deeper hidden meaning to the things you choose to like. Granted sometimes those choices are made by what you would hope to project, taste in music, the fancy car, stylish clothes, art, books. But for the most part many of the things that tickle our fancy stem from the id that makes us those special all-singing, all-dancing…
Most significant of the post-tattoo meanings was the selection of the traditional Chinese stamp. As I mentioned before, the significance of the stamp of the horse character were conscious decisions. But out of the five character catagories in Chinese writing, the one that appealed to me the most was the Xingshu style or “running script”. A script style noted for its “high speed” calligraphic style. Certainly a nice play into my running track and the reference to the galloping horse. Also, Xingshu is one of the “artistic” forms of writing being more free in its stroke method and used more for personal writings. Yet, and this plays into another personality aspect, my sense of balance and temperance, Xingshu is a script style that falls in between the Kai-shu (regular script) and Cao-shu (grass script). The former being a normal, straing and narrow style and the latter being a highly artistic style in some cases so stylized it’s barely legible. And there’s a dynamic component to the Xingshu style that I find pretty cool as well. The style has been described quite illustratively as people standing, walking and running depending on how quickly and how deliberate the strokes are done. Wicked cool. Pretty neat that when I set out to find a design that spoke to my affection for the artistry of the written word and a personal statement I found something consciously and unconsciously so thoroughly in tune with what I had in mind.
And speaking of searches, how fortuitous that I stumbled upon Tashi’s site and his Tibetan calligraphy. It seems such an apt choice as another way to express my sentiments in the form of body art. I mean Tibet is a center of Buddhism, a religion that places great significance on the written word. And what better way to display that than in one of the most artistic methods of writing, Tibetan calligraphy. Then come to find out that in Tibetan Buddhism, the ideal goal of spiritualism is attaining Buddahood partially defined as a state of “omniscience”. Omniscience relating to the Buddist principle that all things derive from the mind. Which, in a way, shares the idea of the Paine quote I started with, “My own mind is my own church”. And there’s more interesting things. Like introspection (a big part of my personality) being a part of Buddhism that is embodied in the Tibetan term for Buddhist. It seems in a full circle, its-all-linked sort of way some scholars posit that the Chinese zodiac (from which I drew my horse character) was introduced by Buddhists.
Perhaps I’m stretching to tie some of these things or that it may speak more to how things are all connected (oh no more subtext) but I just think its cool that what I came around to as far as design decisions and message turned out to have a much deeper connection to myself and my expression than I thought. It’s almost like an affirmation of my true self. Not to get all existential or overly cosmic but to set out in search of a way to express myself and return with something that does it on many different and intricate levels, especially unintentionally, is interesting to say the least. But I suppose really its probably more an illustration of how pervasive our inner personalities are in filtering the world. I guess really in a way, no matter how conscious we are in our lives our true nature always seems to permeate our aesthetic choices at least.
So that was my dissertation. Maybe a bit clumsy I think but you’ve made it this far so cheers. I hope you enjoyed my journey. Best of luck in your own search. Ohhh pics.
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