On metempsychosis.

March 12, 2020

I wanted a token to represent how far this journey has taken me.

I think tattoos are a gorgeous representation of the impermanence of our physical selves, and feel like a tribute to Death themself. For this piece though, I choose to imbue the art with three distinct meanings.

The first: the Ouroboros, the serpent devouring its own tail, is an ancient symbol representative of the infinite cycle of birth and rebirth, and pays homage to the skin-sloughing process akin to the transmigration of souls believed by many cultures to occur at the end of life. I am gifted with the experience of chosen rebirth during this life, with all of the beauty and suffering that accompanies it.

I claim this.

The second: the fingerprints that adorn the serpent are the impressions left by the hundreds of people who have held me during the fragile moments of these tender beginnings, as well as those who have cast me aside in ignorance, fear, or shame.

I claim them both.

The third: borrowed from the Japanese masters of Zen, the ensō represents mu, or the void, and in practice is drawn from ink repetitively through singular, circular brush strokes. This practice can be as frequent as daily, and the circle is left incomplete and unchanged to reflect the beauty of imperfection and the development and unending pursuit of completion in all things. Masters practice drawing ensō as training for the mind to release the body to act freely and in flow. My mind, polluted by the ills of the world, ignored and overpowered the feeling of incongruence in my soul for decades causing great suffering. These two years have been the beginning of my unending practice of letting go and finding freedom in my movement and perpetual imperfection.

I claim it all.