I GOT INKED IN AUSTRALIA!!.
My second tattoo was when I was in Ethiopia in 2012. I got the name of my ex-boyfriend, and I know,
I can hear everyone shudder and tut. I
now know the number one thing people should NEVER get tattooed is the names of
people that aren’t family members. I
have a friend that has 2 tattoos, one for each of her children but she will not
get her husband’s name tattooed on her-her kids will always be her kids, but
things could always change (wanted or not) with her husband. At the time it didn’t worry me getting Zeme’s
name tattooed on me and I know how crazy it was going to look to other
people. This tattoo was going to be with me till the day I die, but in a
way I couldn’t put into words why it felt so right, but it did at the time and
it was like it was my destiny which I know sounds corny but so be it, it was
how I felt and I had absolutely no second thoughts what so ever as I got the name
of some-one tattooed on my skin for life.
Once I posted a picture of that tattoo on Facebook there were a lot of
positive comments and also a few reality comments about putting a name on my
skin, and my simple reply back was that if things didn’t work out (it was never
an option at the time) was that haven’t they all seen LA Ink? I could get it changed into something else
should I need to, they can change tattoos to anything these days, which at the
time I didn’t even think I would EVER have to do and I LOVED the tattoo when I
got it. I loved the font and what the
tattoo meant at the time. Needless to
say, life runs its course and things never turn out the way you planned and I
now have an ex-boyfriends name tattooed on my arm and nearly 12 months on after
we broke up, I am now ready to get it changed into something else. It is now time to play my LA Ink card and in
the coming months I will be getting a tattoo artist to draw up a design that
will incorporate/hide the Zeme tattoo, as it is a permanent reminder of what
was a pretty painful and shameful breakup for me and getting a fresh ink on top
of that one is the last step I need to truly leave that part of my life behind
and look toward the future Zeme free.
I GOT INKED IN ETHIOPIA!!
My 3rd tattoo was something that I had thought about for
a few weeks and I know exactly where I was when I knew that I wanted my third
tattoo and what I wanted. I was in Sri
Lanka on a 16 day trip in October 2012 and I was struggling with my
relationship with Zeme. We were in
Anuradhapura and on our way to visit the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi which is a Sacred Fig tree said to be the southern branch
from the historical Bodhi tree under which Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment. It was planted in 288 BC and is the oldest
living human-planted tree in the world with a known planting date
and today it is one of the most sacred relics of the Buddhists in Sri Lanka and respected by
Buddhists all over the world. My whole
trip to Sri Lanka and learning more about the Buddhism religion was one that I
will not forget. Our guide, Indika, was
a Buddhist and we stopped to get the explanation of the Buddhist flag and the
Wheel of Life and there were 3 words that stood out to me as soon as Indika
said them, it was like a light bulb going off and they instantly resonated with
me and instantly made me feel better.
They were “happiness follows sadness’.
The wheel keeps turning and if you feel sad, don’t despair, as the wheel
keeps turning and happiness will follow and round and round it goes. At the time it was exactly what I needed to
hear and after my tour finished in Sri Lanka I headed to the Philippines for 2
weeks, and this is where I knew that I had to break up with Zeme. So on my very last tour of my 22 month World
Odyssey before heading back to Australia, I was in Nepal for 18 days and
decided I would get a tattoo done before heading back to Oz. So a week after I had broken up with Zeme I
was in a bad, dark place and those 3 words were getting me through my sad days so
on day 8 of the tour I got the opportunity to get a tattoo in Pokhara and I did
it. This tattoo is very symbolic for me
that even when the going gets tough, tomorrow is a new day and hope begins
again.
I GOT INKED IN NEPAL!!
I have now been in Kenya for 6 months and I had seen on
the NES Facebook page comments on people asking about good tattoo artists in
Nairobi. I was at first keeping track of
the details that were being exchanged as I was thinking of getting the Zeme
tattoo finally changed and I wanted to go to a respectable place. I then started thinking about getting a
Kenyan tattoo to symbolise my move to my new country but I had no idea on what
I wanted to get and it was just on the back burner till something grabbed my
attention and then a few weeks ago something did grab my attention. I was searching the internet for a picture
for my blog when I came across a picture that kept coming up that meant Hakuna
Matata (no worries). The second I saw
the symbol I knew it was exactly what I wanted.
When I researched into it a little further, it does mean Hakuna Matata
in an unofficial and non-African way. It
has nothing to do with it being an African symbol as Swahili is not written in symbols. It was
previously written in Arabic script, and now it's written in Latin script (like
the one used for English). The symbol I
was looking at was made famous in a Korean movie called 200 Pound Beauty and
the symbol was symbolized as Hakuna Matata in the movie, as I haven’t seen the
movie I am not sure in what capacity and after reading what people replied to in threads in chat rooms as to what it
means (very little positive comments from very negative people), anything you
get can be translated into what you want and I am happy to say it is the
unofficial symbol for Hakuna Matata and if I want to I can also say it is a
treble clef, as I LOVE music (LOVE) so it can have a double meaning to the one
tattoo. Pretty cool huh and I was pretty
proud that I was NOT getting somebodies name, and I am sure all my friends were
also thinking the same thing breathing a sigh of relief. I did go to the recommended tattoo shop at
Yaya Shopping Mall and they were excellent.
Because of the shape of the symbol, I was debating on
where to put the newly found design as I also wanted to get the Swahili word
malaika, meaning Angel, also tattooed. It
has a double meaning for me as it is what my boyfriend Dan calls me and it also
means that my mum is always with me and she is my Angel. So I have an Angel and I am an Angel to
someone else. It is pretty cool and I
figured I may as well get them both done at the same time, and it also worked
out cheaper too. I have been watching
Keeping Up With the Kardashians (sad I know but I love the show) the last few months
since I got DSTV, and Khloe has her initials tattooed on the top of her hand
and I have to say I really liked it, so I decided to put the Hakuna Matata
symbol there and then malaika could go above my Nepal tattoo. Yes I had it all worked out and I was totally
happy with the result. An hour later,
when we had finished, I showed my Zeme tattoo to my artist Abraham, and after
he had playfully clipped me over the head (for getting a name-which he said
happens all the time) he took a photo of the tattoo and also traced it onto a
piece of plastic and he said to give him a few weeks and he will have a new
design. I said that I wasn’t too fussy
as long as it didn’t go too much bigger, it could be a design or a picture or
another word and that I wasn’t into dragons, witches or castles. I am hoping that he will have something in 2
weeks, so that I can get it done before I head off on my West Africa trip in
September giving it time to heal here before I leave.
I GOT INKED IN KENYA!!
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