I got my first tattoo almost seven years
ago, in 2010. That time it felt like a huge deal though the tattoo itself was
minuscule. I spent months discussing the design and the location and though I
knew what I wanted – a coat of arms in the form of two tennis racquets with the
names of my two favourite tennis players’ names above the acronym GOAT – I
still wanted it to be perfect.
And while budget constraints eventually
forced me to just get only racquet-heads – instead of images of the entire racquets
– above the inscription of GOAT, and despite that I had to explain to most
people who saw my tattoo that the GOAT wasn’t describing the animal; I never
regretted getting it done.
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| My original tattoo, with Rafa written inside the left racquet-head and the RF insignia within the one on the right |
But trying to explain the same rationale
over and over again did get futile prompting me to get a newer tattoo to cover
it up. This time, coming up with a good enough design took even more time. Try
as I did – along with inputs with my creatively endowed cousin – I eventually
gave up thinking of a good enough design and decided to approach a tattoo
artist instead to try and figure it out for me.
Interestingly, it didn’t take long for the
artist to figure out an appropriate image to cover my existing tattoo though he
did admit that the term GOAT was one that had confused him too. The proceedings
didn’t take long after that and when I saw my new tattoo, I was excited that it
had not only adequately camouflaged my older one, but it firmly struck to the premise
I wanted in my tattoo – tennis, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
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| My new tattoo that has the stanza from the Rudyard Kipling poem If |
Recently, I read an article on BBC about
how a lady in England had been getting her tattoos removed through immensely
painful laser treatments. Reading it, I was once again struck by the need for firmness
when it came to getting one’s body etched in indelible ink.
The where, why and how of getting a tattoo
is a rationale that differs from person to person. Likewise, it’s also a
decision that differs from individual to individual. And like every decision
taken at any point in life, there exists a probability that one could change one’s
mind about this too. This is why it becomes all the more important to patiently
evaluate the decision of wanting to get a tattoo.
Moreover, there’s also that that unlike the
lady in the article, not many would be able to afford getting laser treatments
to remove the inking. Especially in India, where to get inked is expensive and
to try and remove it is exorbitant.
Wanting to get a tattoo may be because of wanting
to live up to a fad. But once it’s done, it’s also about being able to live
with it. Somewhere then, I too have tried to modify the status quo of what had been, rather than letting it continue. But having
said so, I do have to say that if I had to redo things, I would go and do them
exactly the same way as before.
