Preface:
Tattoos have been catching up a lot these days. I see a similar pattern in them – either on outer side of the limb or below the palm or on the wrists. Some have it in a language other than Indian. We all are very good at aping in all but good and productive things..!
I am having one too and this is how I got it:
The Seed:
My primary school peon had a tattoo on her inner side of the forearm when I was at the age of 7 or 8 years. I can still remember her face, appearance clearly. She was tall, lean, couple of nose rings, aged around 40 to 45 years. She had her name tattooed in Telugu on left/right hand forearm. It was the first time I saw something written permanently on skin and was quite surprised. I asked her why do you have this to which she replied, “I don’t know. My parents took me to a person, asked me to stretch my hand outwards and close my eyes”. I later learnt that it was done with a needle like thing by dipping into some ink kind of liquid and it was a bearable pain in the process.
The Sprout:
The influence of movies grew larger inside me during the graduation days. That was the time when I was regularly going to movie theatres, closely following news related to them. Maharshi Telugu movie which was released in late 1980s had a huge impact on me even though it was a box office failure at its time. I felt the most beautiful part of the movie is the design of heroine husband’s role. There is a particular scene where the hero burns a locket with letter ‘S’ (means Suchitra, heroine’s name) and presses against his forearm.
The Plant:
When I travelled to US, it was very amusing to see many people sporting tattoos that too full handed ones! My colleague had a huge tattoo after his wife’s name. The itch to have one for myself started.
The Tree:
The difference of opinions I had with my wife at that time was not the sole reason of tattoo. It was just probably a triggering point and acted as a catalyst – nothing more than that. Moreover, I know that I wanted a tattoo but was not sure of how should it be. Just the name? or just initials or letters? I decided concretely to have it when I stumbled upon a simple symbolic design. Sometimes you are not sure what you are looking for but suddenly you realize that this is the one I wanted. That is how it was for me at that time. I remember my friend and sister asking me why a tattoo. Well, it is not for a show off or prove that I love her or something - somethings are difficult to explain. So let’s shrug it off!
The trips I do, the photos I take, the moments with wife, my family is usually to please and make myself happy and probably share some of them with selective people. Period.
Note(s):
- I had got my tattoo inked in March 2015 (4 years ago as on today). Since I have developed a habit of writing something on something on its anniversary, this came out now. However, it was long overdue.
- My couple of colleagues at that time advised me to wait for one more year and to have the wife’s name tattooed. Their opinion was that if we part ways, it would be difficult to get another girl in case of a second marriage with the same name or letter.
- Thanks to my colleague and friend Navneet for his inputs on various designs.
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