If anyone had asked me a year ago if I would ever go under the needle, I would have looked at them in complete amusement to have even bothered asking that question. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not the kind of person to voluntarily subject myself to any kind of pain, especially needles. It wasn't until I became extremely passionate about being a woman did I ever think twice about getting anything more permanent than multiple ear piercings as a body modification. It wasn't until I came upon the Goddess Isis did I ever think about getting a tattoo.
I got a lot of questions about Isis. Ranging from "What does she mean?" to "Why a tattoo?" to "Did it hurt?" So today on the Stares, I want to talk tattoos and what it meant for me to have one.
The Goddess Isis was the Egyptian Goddess of love, magic, health, and the moon. She also held the power of life and death in her hands. But these were only a few of the well known traits that she encompassed as a Goddess. In this time era, Isis was praised as the highest divinity in Egyptian culture (So think of how Christians worship God, Muslims worship Allah, etc.).
The day I learned about Isis and what she meant to her people was the first time I ever truly learned what it meant to be a woman. In our culture as people today, we are so used knowing God as being a masculine figure, and for one of Earth's first culture of people to praise a woman figure as the highest divinity not only touched my life, but it also made nothing but sense to me. Knowing Isis changed my life forever.
Instagram/Jesscapades25 |
Understanding all of this made me wonder how we went from being praised as the highest divinity in life to becoming man's subordinate, prize, possession? How did we get to a point where we as women feel like it is our duties to appeal to and subject ourselves to men, when we are the most powerful beings in the universe? We are ALL goddesses, and it is my deepest hope that there'll come a day when we can treat ourselves and one another as such. It's hard watching women struggle with self image and bring harm to one another so often that it becomes a ruling factor in their lives when I know each and every one has the power of a Goddess.
The reason I wanted Isis stamped on my body forever was so I can pay my respects and give my thanks to my God for choosing me to be a woman. To remind myself AND other women than I am more than my body - and a tattoo isn't going to change that. I simply saw the few hours under hot and uncomfortable needles as me earning my wings for realizing who am I to people and to life's journey. And when I die, the shell of me that is left here on Earth will show people that I, as a person, had values, passions, and things that I stood for in this life.
That's why I have started to love tattoos and see them in a new light. It's more than just body art, but it's YOUR body art and YOUR life messages. And I have chosen to use my body as a vessel to carry my personal life messages with me. These messages are scars on my body the same in the same way that they are scars on my heart, and I want to able to share that with the world. So when it is my time to pass, I know that this shell that has carried me throughout the span of my life wouldn't have done it all in vain.
Tattoo: Kylie Greene/ Walk the Line Tattoos/Athens,GA Headband: Aerie |
Photography by Derek Oladokun
No comments:
Post a Comment