The tattoo story

I’ve been meaning to get a tattoo for years now. It always was one of those things that fascinated me. Early on, I always wondered what drove people into having weird cryptograms, random art and characters etched onto their bodies…till I realized I wanted one myself.

There were a lot of times that I wanted to over the years and people who know me well enough will vouch for the fact that I’ve been raving about a tattoo forever. But in hindsight, I’m just glad that I waited this long to get a tattoo. I don’t even want to think about what I would have gotten inked had I done it a few years ago. I would’ve probably gotten something juvenile that I’m certain I would’ve regretted somewhere down the line.

Then, recently, I happened to read a lot about gratitude and how we take every little thing we have in life for granted without really being appreciative of anything. That’s when I started looking back and thinking about the gazillion things that are right in my life and that have been – even if it was just having somewhere to live or food to eat every single day! Some don’t have the luxury of having three meals a day. It was then I realized the number of things that I have been given that I’ve always taken for granted and I wanted gratitude to be a very major part of my life thereafter.  

When I read The Secret and I read about the magic rock, I wanted a magic rock of my own. Now I have, not one, but two of them. My tattoos that symbolize gratitude are my own little magic rocks that remind me day in and day out to be thankful for all things I have received all my life. For all the people who have made a difference in my life and has made it what it has been. I am very grateful for all that I’ve been through that has made me who I am today. I am grateful for all those who have hurt me to have made me stronger. I am grateful for all those who have believed in me and who stand by me, no matter what. I’m very grateful I have a support system of people who are patient, who tell me what I’m capable of when I forget myself. I’m very grateful for every single thing that has shaped my life – good or bad.

A day before I got my tattoo, someone asked me if I wasn’t too young to get a gratitude tattoo. It’s when I thought about it and told him that one can never be too young or old to be grateful for what they have. And I’m not.

Oh, and why in Chinese? Because I think the script is extremely artsy – and that in another parallel universe is another part of me.