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| Through mud it rises. Through water it emerges. Through sunlight it blossoms. |
Last week I got a new tattoo. The fourth (and according to the superstition among the world of tattoos, one should have an odd number of tattoos, so in the future I'll have to get at least a fifth one).
My first tattoo doesn't have any big meaning, I confess. I like it, don't get me wrong, but the truth is that I made it so I could understand how much would it hurt to get it done and to see if I would like to see myself with a stamp in my body for the rest of my life - so, it's in a place where I don't get to see it all the time, sometimes I even forget that I have it.
As the saying goes, the hardest thing is to get started (though I don't want to get much more tattoos).
The second and the third tattoos, unlike the first one, have a very strong meanings. Both are very special to me, particularly the third one, the portuguese word "saudade", that means nostalgia, the feeling of missing someone, something or someplace, with my mother's handwriting - she didn't know for what it was when I asked her to write it in a piece of paper... sorry mum!
So these two tattoos are very special for me, a link between myself and my family and my roots.
This last tattoo is not like the other ones. Its meaning is to me for me. A reminder that things get better, that after the storm comes the sun, even when it seems that the storm never ends. That, like the lotus flower, we can blossom from the mud and dirt. And so on, so on with the clichés that boost our self-esteem and make us believe in a better tomorrow... but they're probably clichés for some good reason.
Este sábado passado fiz mais uma tatuagem. A quarta (e segundo a superstição do mundo das tatuagens, não convém ter número par, portanto no futuro lá terei de fazer a quinta).
A minha primeira tatuagem, confesso, não tem grande significado para mim. Gosto dela mas a verdade é que a fiz mais na base do teste, ver o quanto me custava realmente fazer uma tatuagem e tentar perceber se gostava de me ver com um desenho marcado na minha pele o resto da vida - como tal, está num sítio onde não a vejo tanto quanto isso, tanto que às vezes até me esqueço que a tenho.
Como se costuma dizer, o que custa é começar (não que queira fazer muitas mais).
A segunda e a terceira tatuagens, ao contrário da primeiro, tem significados bastante fortes. Ambas são extremamente especiais para mim, em especial a terceira, a palavra "saudade", escrita com a letra da minha mãe - na altura, não sabia para o que era quando lhe pedi para escrever num papel… sorry mum!
Portanto, estas são deveras especiais para mim, uma ligação entre mim e a minha família, e as minhas raízes.
Nini
