What the mind forgets....

 ..... the body remembers.

I read this a very long time ago, and it has stayed with me. 

In 2009, I got my first tattoo. I think there is also a post on it somewhere in this blog. Of course, it's me after all. How can I not have written about it!

The first tattoo was a rebellion. It was a tumultuous time in my life. Just a few months before getting inked for the first time, I remember lashing out at my bestfriend/roomate at the time for her tattoo and being extremely judgmental. Come 4 months later, there I was, with this same friend, at her tattoo parlor and asking for my first tattoo. My idea of the design when asked - ' I am in pain. So much pain. My heart is on fire. So do me a burning heart'! It was my era of vehemently making and sticking to all the wrong decisions. What could one more do? This was my justification. 

It's been 17 years since then. The burning heart tattoo still remains. I have been wanting to cover it up with some other meaningful one. I just haven't found the perfect one yet. But in the meantime, somewhere along the years, I read the phrase 'What the mind forgets, the body remembers'. I took that to heart, and I realized it was so very true. A lot of my memories from those days are hazy, but the day I got my first tattoo, my exact conversations on that day, the journey to it, and everything else surrounding it are still so vivid in my memory. So I decided to make this a ritual. To the rest of the world, these are mere tattoos. But to me, these are my milestone markers. That even if one day my mind chooses to forget, my body will remind me. 

2015, I got tattoo #2 and #3. Well, technically, tattoo #2 was a disaster, so #3 was supposed to be it's cover up. But as luck would have it, it came out to be even more disastrous than the original! But I lived with it for over a decade. Thankfully, it was something I could hide from the outside world pretty discreetly. And of course, as was history, these too had their story etched on my permanent memory.

Come year 2020, tattoo #4 came along. I had researched and finalized it for many months before I actually got inked because I wanted to make no mistakes this time. 'Aham Brahasmi' in calligraphical hindi and a trident design. For the first time in my life,  I felt confident, proud, and happy to get a tattoo. And for the first time, I was finally getting a tattoo for a positive memory. 

I swore to be done with tattoos after this. I guess I spoke too soon.

It's been 2 weeks now. The disastrous tattoo#3 has been covered up into the most gorgeous and meaningful design I could have ever dreamed of! So finally I have tattoo#5 that I cannot stop flaunting! And since I didn't want it to feel lonely, I got tattoos #6 and #7 as well. 

Well, #1 still needs a cover-up. I am still looking for her perfect design to transform it into something meaningful for my purpose. That is going to be the last and final tattoo #8 (to come).

I know I need to be done for now when my 9-year-old tells me that 7 tattoos and 9 piercings are enough for now! Oh - Did I mention I also got the septum piercing and Navel piercing while getting the last 3 tattoos? 

All because I read a beautiful line that chose to stay with me and make itself a purpose in my life!!!!

Happy to have been inked - yet again! And absolutely in love with my gorgeous non-conventional piercings!