AND WHAT IF YOU REGRET IT_!
Monday morning, 10:00 AM.
I’m in the gym locker room, getting dressed after my pleasant walk, and a very lovely lady over 70 says to me:
“Well, you don’t need to get dressed, you’re already covered!”
And I smile ^^
And she says, “Beautiful, huh! You look very pretty ^^”
And I smile.
And then she asks, “But what about when you’re old?”
“I’ll still be beautifully adorned even when I’m old.”
“And what if you regret it?”
“I can’t regret my life… it’s my story. If I had gotten them just for fashion maybe, but they all have significant meanings.”
“And do you know they’re forever?”
“Yes, ma’am, I know ^_^”
“Even marriages are forever, but look at what happens later… you can easily change a husband… but tattoos… you’re stuck with
them now!”
And she goes on…
And she continues…
AND SHE KEEPS GOING!!!!
“…you’re young, you still have so much life ahead of you, if you regret it, you’ll live unhappily…”
“Ma’am, I hope to die soon!”
And I left.
Every day, the brain processes 50,000 to 60,000 thoughts, but 95% of them are the same as the previous day’s, so it’s very difficult to change one’s mind about something. But I wonder…
How superficial are you to only think about how you’ll look aesthetically when you’re older?
How superficial are you to think you can talk to a complete stranger and impose your judgments on how she’s living her life and tell her how she should be living it instead?!
These things always disturb me greatly.
People rarely mind their own business.
And today, I’m still here, thinking about that lady.
And so, I’ve pondered existential questions, which I and the Council of Inner Ministers in My Head always have so much to discuss.
How can something as superficial as the skin bear witness to something as profound as the sense of Self?
There’s this common belief that what lies on the periphery knows nothing about what happens at the core of the matter and that from the outside, one cannot understand what happens within.
But when it comes to the skin… everything changes.
The skin serves three essential functions, establishing the distinction between the Self and the Non-Self, setting a boundary between what is internal and what is external, protecting the individual in contact with reality, and regulating the exchange between the inner and outer realms.
Without the skin, both psychologically and physically, the boundaries of the Self would be lost.
And the skin, like a litmus paper regulated by blood flow, reveals the individual’s internal psychological reactions
(blushing with embarrassment, turning green with anger, paling with fear, blushing pink with happiness, or exhibiting acne, dermatitis, eczema).
The magic of tattoos is that they can intervene in the perception of the Self.
Tattoos redefine the feeling of Self and our boundaries by imprinting a mental content onto the skin.
With tattoos, a person is filled with the euphoria associated with the ability to expand and strengthen their sense of Self.
This euphoria is destined to fade and can even lead to disappointment and a sense of failure.
It’s in the logic of life.
Even in the most successful creations, there emerges a sense of dissatisfaction and incompleteness towards what one wanted to achieve because our fantasies, well, they’re fantasies, and by definition, fantasies are far from reality.
In fantasy, anything is possible, but in reality, we have limitations.
To avoid regret, one must be content with what is possible in the real world.
One must consider how the meaning of the tattoo will resonate within oneself in the future and not be fixated solely on the aesthetics of a beautiful design.
That’s what it seems like to me.
So, I would say that I’m not concerned with how I’ll look aesthetically when I’m older.
I’m interested in creating a better version of myself every day.
And getting tattooed grants me the ability to reshape my sense of Self, to amplify and improve it.
Not aesthetically, but to enhance my sense of Self, which are two very different things, you know.
Goodbye, I’m done.
I’m off to play some games because I have a hyperactive, menstruating little dog running around the house.
With love, but always irreverent
LADYSARA
PS: Have you noticed that humans are the only naked monkeys in existence?
The naked monkey…
Biologically, humans have lost their fur to be seen, to be noticed.
They didn’t need fur for defense, warmth, or hiding because they compensated for these needs with ingenuity and creativity. Instead, they needed to be noticed by sexual partners to procreate and keep the species alive.
Like peacocks spreading their tails, we humans have shed our fur.
Being highly visible has become a fundamental need of human beings.
Tattooing creates an anomaly in the normality of smooth skin.
It creates astonishment because “there is” something that “shouldn’t be there.”
And so, we become highly visible ^_^
