Of Tattoos, Decisiveness and Regrets

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. 

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. 

 

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.