Scarred for life: Do tattoos need meaning?

Posted by admin on Mar 12, 2008 in Arts & Culture | 0 comments

Ever thought about getting some ink, a permanent tatty of some sort? Can’t think of something you’d ever want to have on your body forever? Let me propose a new way of thinking about forever.

Positioned diagonally, I have a small grey dragonfly tattooed in the top of my left foot. It mostly just looks cool and aesthetically appealing. There is no symbolism attached to it, nor is there a statement associated with the design. There is no regret either. It is just a tattoo, and it will be on my body forever.

So far I’m the only person I know whose tattoo doesn’t mean anything, not a thing. Well, the design doesn’t have any inherent meaning, but having a tattoo does mean something to me. I thought long and hard about what I could get that I would want on my body forever and ever, and I couldn’t think of anything. So far, I haven’t seen any transcendent tattoo designs that express something that I would want to define me forever, including Bible verses or theological statements.

I got my tattoo in a sort of submission to finitude, in recognition of being temporal. I will live for some 70 odd more years on earth, then I’ll die and my body will decay in the ground. And I assume that the tattoo’s existence on my skin will have no bearing on the eternal state of my soul.

I’m not suggesting that everyone go out on a whim and get a tattoo etched on their skin. I’m just wondering if maybe we shouldn’t take our bodies, our skin, so seriously. I mean if you’re worried about your skin, wear sunscreen. You’ll probably never think of something you’ll love forever, but if you like tattoos and you want to express something, why not? Think about it a little while, sketch some stuff out, look at it for a few months and if you still find it inspiring (which is a sign of good art), I say go for it. Perhaps don’t get it done on your forehead though; you might really regret that.