Travel tattoos: Why we get them and what they mean.
by Lauren Klarfeld
oct. 2015
"People who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you". Neil Gaiman
Published oct. 2015 : Thought Catalog
From the minute that we are born – to the day that our bodies age and pass away – our bodies will follow us through. Some will grow tall while others will remain short. Some will have freckles or birth marks, dark hair or blond hair, a crooked nose or beautiful dark eyes, slim features or strong features…The list of our physical features is endless. And yet we will never choose the bodies we grow into or the bodies we receive…
oct. 2015
"People who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you". Neil Gaiman
Published oct. 2015 : Thought Catalog
From the minute that we are born – to the day that our bodies age and pass away – our bodies will follow us through. Some will grow tall while others will remain short. Some will have freckles or birth marks, dark hair or blond hair, a crooked nose or beautiful dark eyes, slim features or strong features…The list of our physical features is endless. And yet we will never choose the bodies we grow into or the bodies we receive…
And it will change through time. It will grow and develop everyday microscopically closer to what our genetics had planned all along for us.
And life will leave marks on us too. Some will find it in the creases of their eyes from smiling too much. Others in the wrinkles of their mouths from smiling too little. Or in the scar across their eyebrow as they let their older brother push them way too fast down that hill that one summer day… Point of it is, we never choose the bodies we come with and yet they will permanently be with us every day.
As our body journeys through life, and life journeys on our body – why is it that some people feel the need to make reminders of their journeys on themselves? And what do these look like?
To answer this, we may have to look at our own tattoos differently to begin with – and instead of asking what we got – ask ourselves why we got it; why we actually felt the need that day to leave a permanent mark on our skin…
If you have a tattoo for instance (although I don’t think you need to have one to relate to this), try and remember the moment you got it. Remember? As the ink punctured onto your skin? And the machine buzzed as tiny lengths of pain struck you? And how maybe for a moment you were realizing that this ink was going to be irreversible and forever?
What it became that day, was a choice. An enhanced and controlled version of a scar left on your body by choice. It’s a story to tell, but also a new part of you.
So while you were given the body at birth, you are now deciding to add something new to it – and that is something fundamental in the culture surrounding the naked body today – that we are giving ourselves the power of expressing things with it.
And if I look at my tattoos, my answer is clear – they are in the end reminders – beautiful and meaningful things I wanted to keep close. And as change is a constant – as our houses, our money, our friends, our things and even our lovers can always disappear - the one thing that we will always remain the closest to, will be our minds and our bodies. They are interrelated. From the minute that we are born – to the day that our bodies age and pass away – they will follow us through. And I believe that sometimes the mind needs to sprawl itself on the body – as much as a body may sprawl itself on our minds.
With this in mind then, and taking a closer look at travel related tattoos, there are certain themes I picked up over the years.
First of all, as I asked people around about the meaning of their tattoos, many shared stories of how their tattoos were reminders of their homes; reminders of where they had been. Typically, these tattoos would come in the form of the outline of a country; a symbol of that place, coordinates on maps etc. They were more precise reminders of the places they had moved to and that had moved them in return. They were reminders of fixed places. A point and place in time. They were the reminders of the geography and lengths they had been to – and those they chose to remember.
It is hence a bit ironic to see, that as we travel great lengths in this world away from home, most of us come back with a clearer view on what home means. And most likely it isn't so much about the place in itself, but more about the places and people that have made us feel AT home…
But while some tattoos talked about what home meant, others I saw carried tattoos of symbols and states of minds. Typically these would be sentences like “wanderlust”, a paper plane, a map of the world, a compass…The symbiotic of the wanderlust generation in a way.
What they are in the end are reminders of what drives them in this world: the curiosity for life and self-discovery. And travelling is in my opinion one of the best ways to feed this need.
Our tattoos are our resources and personal reminders. Our points of departures – but also our protections. They are what make us different. They are in the end what shapes our mind when we fear we might be in doubt. And what makes us doubt more than life itself…
A mind wanders, thoughts flee and memories fade. But tattoos, tattoos are forever. And if it is true to say that we carry ourselves with when we travel - then the body may very well be a beautiful canvas for the timeless lessons we learn and will learn when we travel.
Special thanks to the all the admins of the following forums : girls of GWT, the ladies of SWT and the nomads of NOMADS for their help on the research.
And life will leave marks on us too. Some will find it in the creases of their eyes from smiling too much. Others in the wrinkles of their mouths from smiling too little. Or in the scar across their eyebrow as they let their older brother push them way too fast down that hill that one summer day… Point of it is, we never choose the bodies we come with and yet they will permanently be with us every day.
As our body journeys through life, and life journeys on our body – why is it that some people feel the need to make reminders of their journeys on themselves? And what do these look like?
To answer this, we may have to look at our own tattoos differently to begin with – and instead of asking what we got – ask ourselves why we got it; why we actually felt the need that day to leave a permanent mark on our skin…
If you have a tattoo for instance (although I don’t think you need to have one to relate to this), try and remember the moment you got it. Remember? As the ink punctured onto your skin? And the machine buzzed as tiny lengths of pain struck you? And how maybe for a moment you were realizing that this ink was going to be irreversible and forever?
What it became that day, was a choice. An enhanced and controlled version of a scar left on your body by choice. It’s a story to tell, but also a new part of you.
So while you were given the body at birth, you are now deciding to add something new to it – and that is something fundamental in the culture surrounding the naked body today – that we are giving ourselves the power of expressing things with it.
And if I look at my tattoos, my answer is clear – they are in the end reminders – beautiful and meaningful things I wanted to keep close. And as change is a constant – as our houses, our money, our friends, our things and even our lovers can always disappear - the one thing that we will always remain the closest to, will be our minds and our bodies. They are interrelated. From the minute that we are born – to the day that our bodies age and pass away – they will follow us through. And I believe that sometimes the mind needs to sprawl itself on the body – as much as a body may sprawl itself on our minds.
With this in mind then, and taking a closer look at travel related tattoos, there are certain themes I picked up over the years.
First of all, as I asked people around about the meaning of their tattoos, many shared stories of how their tattoos were reminders of their homes; reminders of where they had been. Typically, these tattoos would come in the form of the outline of a country; a symbol of that place, coordinates on maps etc. They were more precise reminders of the places they had moved to and that had moved them in return. They were reminders of fixed places. A point and place in time. They were the reminders of the geography and lengths they had been to – and those they chose to remember.
It is hence a bit ironic to see, that as we travel great lengths in this world away from home, most of us come back with a clearer view on what home means. And most likely it isn't so much about the place in itself, but more about the places and people that have made us feel AT home…
But while some tattoos talked about what home meant, others I saw carried tattoos of symbols and states of minds. Typically these would be sentences like “wanderlust”, a paper plane, a map of the world, a compass…The symbiotic of the wanderlust generation in a way.
What they are in the end are reminders of what drives them in this world: the curiosity for life and self-discovery. And travelling is in my opinion one of the best ways to feed this need.
Our tattoos are our resources and personal reminders. Our points of departures – but also our protections. They are what make us different. They are in the end what shapes our mind when we fear we might be in doubt. And what makes us doubt more than life itself…
A mind wanders, thoughts flee and memories fade. But tattoos, tattoos are forever. And if it is true to say that we carry ourselves with when we travel - then the body may very well be a beautiful canvas for the timeless lessons we learn and will learn when we travel.
Special thanks to the all the admins of the following forums : girls of GWT, the ladies of SWT and the nomads of NOMADS for their help on the research.
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