Tattoo's And Other Such Musings

I am a yogi who doesn't have any tattoos. I wear pearls and high heels for fancy occasions but I prefer malas and bare feet.

Why I don't have a tattoo

1. I know my taste in decor changes so I just assume my taste in body art would too. Kenny Rodgers words are in my head: "It's a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling".

2. I grew up at a time where drawing on yourself with ink was considered harmful. It didn't stop me but I did worry each time I drew a happy face on the bottom of my toes. My mother is still shocked when I write on my hand. But I was, and still am, careful to never use an indelible marker because "those are the most harmful". Tattoos are pretty indelible.

3. My kids went to the Body Worlds exhibit at the science center when they were little. Do you remember those? They put plasticised bodies on display so people could see what our insides look like? I stayed home with the baby to keep her from being too traumatised. When my kids came home they were so excited to tell me about the black liver of the person who had tattoos. They said a healthy liver was pink. They told me all about how the liver would have to process the ink from the tattoos and swore they would never do that to their liver. I was with them on this sentiment! I didn't want my liver to turn black either, even if no one was ever going to see it. 20 years later my kids all have tattoos. I guess the exhibit wasn't as traumatising as I thought it would be.

I have three holes in my ears. In the 70's it was considered very radical and so very cool. Two on one side and one on the other. The first two holes were put there by a jeweller carefully picked by my mother. The third one was painfully made by my friend Cathi with a needle, some ice and a potato. We were in high school and she was working as a Candy Striper at a hospital so in my adolescent brain it was being done by a qualified health professional. I still love my pierced ears and still wear all three earrings. Maybe I wouldn't change my mind about a carefully thought out piece of body art.

With that said, If I did get a tattoo I'd have some sort of cool Celtic knot winding around my upper arm. I'm sure in the days when my biceps were more solid it would have looked good. Now I'm afraid the knot would just emphasise the jiggle that seems to happen spontaneously when I wave. Maybe, I'd go for some cool Sanskrit symbol on my wrist to go with my yoga pants. I even went so far as to buy a nice fake tattoo to try out but it kept catching my attention making me feel like I needed a shower to get the dirt off. Yeah, I'm going to have to track down my friend, the henna artist, on the days when three holes doesn't feel cool enough.