Second Tattoo

I got my first tattoo done about two years ago and talked about my experience here. It got me thinking on inking again. The same rules of What, Where, Who and When applied here too.

The 'WHO' was the easy part as I was sure I would want to get it done again at Dark Arts Studio in Bangalore where I got my first tattoo done and preferably from Satish Palan who did my first tattoo as well.

The 'WHERE' part was also almost pre-decided. If you read my first tattoo blog you will realise that I was thinking of getting the tattoo done either on my upper or lower part of the hand. Since the first one had been on the upper part of the hand, I decided that the second one would be on the forearm.

The 'WHAT' part got me thinking since I wanted the second one to mean something very personal. The first tattoo had been of Lord Ganesha as I had always wanted to start that way. The second tattoo's idea had already started germinating in my mind for some time. I wanted my family's names as a tattoo and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed awesome since the names were interlinked. My wife's name is Anindita or Ani for short, my daughter's name is Ipsita and my son's name is Tarush. If you look closely, as I did when I started thinking of a design, you can link them with Ani leading into Ipsita leading into Tarush or in other words AnIpsiTArush. So that was fixed. I wanted this to be an inner circle with the outer circle saying Beautiful Soul as these three were the beautiful soul of my life. Two concentric circles - AnIpsiTArush as inner and Beautiful Soul as outer.

The most difficult part was the 'WHEN' part as I just could not find the time in my busy schedule. In between travelling and family time, I was not able to take the required time out to visit Dark Arts. In the meantime, I had been speaking to my best friend, Sowmya Ramachandran, and getting her psyched to get a tattoo done as well. We had been discussing for quite some time about the possibility. 30th Nov was her birthday and we got discussing about the possibility of her getting her tattoo done on that day. I had a tentative appointment for her at Dark Arts and when she finally decided to get it done, I decided to accompany her and get my second one done as well. So the first tattoo was on Ganesh Chaturthi and the second one on my best friend's birthday.

When we landed up at Dark Arts, we got to Sowmya's design first. She wanted to get a Sun done and as she was being shown some designs, I got a chance to explain my 'concentric circle' design to Preeti. Sowmya quickly decided on a flaming Sun with a V (for Vedanth, her son) morphing into a R (for Raj, her husband) in the centre of the Sun. As I got discussing with them on my idea, we quickly realised that having so many alphabets in a circle may make it illegible. As Preeti showed me some fonts, we finalised on a beautiful cursive font which would give it some flair. The stencil looked good and we were set.

Sowmya's tattoo took a good hour to get done and it did pain a bit for her as she was getting it done right at the pulse area on her wrist. The end result is really good. Satish got started on mine after her's was done. And it took all of 2-1/2 hours to get it done. As I had mentioned earlier, this time too it wasn't very bad. There were moments when it did pain a bit but mostly it was like a small needle pricking you softly. After some time you sort of get used to it and it doesn't even register. At the end of 2-1/2 hours by 10.00pm, my tattoo was done and I had my second ink.

The tattoo is big, taking up almost 3/4 of the arm. I jokingly mention to people that now I can't even have an affair as the girl will ask whose names are those on your hand and when I tell her that its my wife and kids, I'm sure she'll disappear. :) But what better way to show commitment and love for my family than to have them tatto-ed on my body with the fact that they are the Beautiful Soul of my life!

Day 19 - Mind Over Body

First, have a look at this video before you read the blog today - Mind Over Body. (If it opens up in the same window, do come back after viewing it)

Now tell me isn't that awesome? I really admire people like this person who can have a bohemian spirit even in the face of extreme adversity. It makes you wonder what the human mind is capable of.

What makes people like him tick? What makes them live life in such high spirits even when they can look around them and realise that other people are so 'lucky'? What makes their minds so strong that they do not succumb to depression but rise above their limitations and are able to show people like us how to live life?

I have HUGE admiration for people who can make their mind work over their bodies and live life really King Size. The first time I heard about Christopher Reeve's accident I was devastated - not because it was Superman who lost the faculties of his limbs but because I could not imagine a life where you have lived healthily for so many years and then suddenly find yourself without the use of your body. How does one live like that? Doesn't one think about all the 'good' times in one's life of running, playing etc and then look at oneself and feel pity and depression? What does it take for a Christopher Reeve to live a healthy life even after the accident? What did he say to himself to live a life like that? I had nothing but tremendous appreciation and respect for him in his second life.

The same admiration applies to people who discover that they have a life threatening disease but use their willpower to fight it and come back. Lance Armstrong, Amitabh Bachchan, our aunty next door, my dad and so many others. They have gone through hell with the disease, had surgeries and body abuse and used their willpower to fight the pain and come back standing tall.

I sometimes wonder that if I ever find myself in such a situation, will I be strong enough to use my mind over body and win the battle or will I wallow in self pity and go into a downward spiral of depression?

I hope I am strong enough and like the man in the video says - "I have the willpower to stand up after I have fallen".