A Sacred Tattoo On the Path to Enlightenment
Shit just got real, Son.
I’m calm, as the Russian tattoo artist grips my left hand, drawing lines with a red Sharpie. Everything’s fine, as long as it’s by my wrist. Then it happened. Danger zone.
My inner monologue:
“That’s…that’s a line up the side of my index finger.”
“And oh…OH.”
“Why is that line going down the webbing of my hand towards the thumb???? You watched Jackass, you remember Johnny Knoxville crying like a baby when he got a papercut and you’re getting a freaking tattoo there? WTF IS THIS??!?!”
“Oh…my. Yup, I have lines on both sides of my index finger and ……….. WAIT WHAT?! WHAT?!?! That’s my fingertip, dude!! You’re tattooing my fingertip???!!!”
More lines, up and down my left hand, tracing the outline of my hand like I did in elementary school to make Thanksgiving turkey crafts. Except now it feels like I’m the turkey about to get cooked.
“OHWHATTHEHELL am I getting tattooed on my fingers, my fingertips, and the webbing??????!!?!! REALLY???? EVERY ONE OF THEM??? FUCK!! This is not what I had in mind, I just wanted a cute little tattoo on the side of my finger! WHAT IS THIS??!?!!!”
What this is, is that shit just got real, son.
Master Svietliy, the tattoo artist, looks up with his kind blue eyes and says, “There is only one place you can make a choice. What do you want to do with your thumb? I can go here,” he says, motioning under my thumb nail.
“That’s a hard no,” I think to myself.
“Or I can go around here,” he says, tracing the U of the side of my thumb, the tip, and other side of my thumb. FUCK.
“Let’s do the top of the thumb,” I say with a sigh and a wry smile hiding my fear.
As ill-advised as it sounds, I purposefully didn’t know what tattoo I was getting. In the 21 years since I had gotten my first tattoo, I hadn’t gotten inked again and here I was getting this ovaries to the wall tattoo, with no control over the design other than I knew I wanted it on my left hand and from him. A tattoo from Master Svietliy was no ordinary tattoo and this was no ordinary tattoo session.
This was a sacred tattoo ceremony for a Sak Yant tattoo, the Thai name for the tattooing of sacred geometric designs. The tattoos are done by Buddhist monks or Brahmin holy men, who bless the designs and tattoo by hand without machines. Master Svietliy had done Sak Yant tattoos at a temple in Thailand, as the only apprentice under Buddhist monk Ajan Thoi who was blessed and initiated to do Sak Yant tattoos around the world. Each Sak Yant symbol is designed for the wearer and to never, ever be copied because of its power. The design is meant to bring blessings to the wearer and, to ensure that the sacred symbol works, the wearer must be a good person and live a good life.
Our session began with a conversation over tea. Rather than boring small talk, we dove in deep with Svietliy asking about my story, my past, my family, my motivations, my purpose, my calling, my plans. He’d gently challenge me and I cried at being called out, but as he explained, it wasn’t really him asking these questions. I could see it in his eyes too, the Self beyond the self asking me the right questions to get me in the heart.
After we talked, played music, and had tea, he was ready to begin. Throughout the conversation, he performs a sacred energy reading and channels the design based on it. Whereas his other designs have perfect symmetry and thick lines, mine is a drastic departure from his usual style because it’s none of those things.
My symbol is the Unalome. Both a Hindu and Buddhist symbol, the Unalome represents the journey on the path to enlightenment. It begins with a spiral representing the start of the path, where we begin in ignorance, with no knowledge and direction. Through the struggles of life and making mistakes we gain a greater understanding of the world and the spiral becomes bigger. As we continue, each challenge becomes a teaching and we become more wise until we have mastered ourselves. The path straightens as it leads to enlightenment and then death.
He wrapped the line around my hand, going up and down the peaks and valleys of my fingers and the webbing of my skin, like the markings on the hands of the Buddha. Paired with the Unalome, the symbol is meant to bring me strength on the journey on the path to enlightenment.
To create the tattoo, he began by attaching a tattoo needle to a bamboo stick using red twine. He then spoke a blessing into gold leaf squares blessed by his teacher and placed them on either side of the tattoo and between my brows. After that, he began handpoking my tattoo.
“It’s just sensation,” he explained. “It’s only temporary and the pain will pass if you let it. Breathe into it and feel it and let it go.”
“Oh, uh huh,” I thought, “Sure yeah, it’s just sensation, right.”
The thing is — he was right. Putting my best Zen meditation practice to the test, I did my best to be present as he tattooed. When I anticipated the next stick and poke and held my breath, it would hurt more because I was expecting the pain to be there and would hold onto it, thinking to myself “FUCK THAT HURTS.” When I surrendered to the process and stopped my story that it would hurt, I allowed whatever sensation there was to just be and didn’t put a label on it so it wouldn’t hurt as much, it was a pinch and gone. When we allow things to be what they are, instead of being attached to what we need them to be, we are free. By practicing non-attachment, we can allow life to unfold as it will instead of holding onto what things need to be for our story about them to be right.
Two and a half hours of getting a tattoo became a life lesson for me. It’s absolutely perfect despite the initial shock — a lesson duly noted that sometimes what we get in life isn’t what we expect and that’s a good thing.
After he drew it, I looked at the red lines with a seed of fear. This wasn’t a cutesy flash tattoo that was easy to cover up with clothing, this was a tattoo up and down my damn hand. I thought to myself, “If I get this, there’s no turning back.”
The act of getting this jobstopper tattoo was a declaration, planting my flag in the sand and burning my boats so there’s no going back from my path. In the unknown all I have is me, trusting myself to handle whatever happens, and all I can do is surrender to the process — much like this tattoo.
If you’d like to save yourself from getting a sacred tattoo poked into your skin on your own journey on the path to enlightenment, learn from my story.
1) The non-attachment of an open mind is one of our greatest tools. When we don’t have expectations of what things should be, we allow them to be what they are.
2) Everything changes. The joy in this moment will change, the pain in this moment will change. How much we suffer because of this moment, however, depends on how long we choose to hold onto it.
3) Trust the process. We want guarantees and control over what things will be like on the other side, but all we can do is trust that things will be different.
4) You’re tougher than you think.
Shit just got real and I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but whatever it is, I can handle it. Trust that you can too.
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