Tattoos

Not a tattoo person, never had one, and really have no desire to get one, even though I was a sailor for seven years. Today, the tattoo has become part of mainstream life. You would be hard-pressed to go out in public and not see a few people with them.

Let’s start with a question first. Do you have a tattoo?

So what brought me to write about tattoos? I just started the book “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” by Heather Morris which is based on interviews with a Holocaust survivor.

Naturally, talking about tattoos I went digging for some interesting facts or said to be facts.

Did you know it is said that Captain James Cook coined the word when he sailed around the Polynesian islands where tattooing was prevalent?

Once when we were in Hawaii we visited the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu, where the kids got henna tattoos. If you haven’t been to the PCC it is worth the visit. Entertaining and informative.

During WWII, the Waffen-SS in Nazi Germany had tattoos done on the underside of the left arm indicating their blood type. This was an extra precaution to blood transfusion in case a soldier lost his dog tags. After the war, due to the SS having committed an abundance of war crimes, this tattoo was used to identify those members. A lot of those SS members tried to remove these tattoos and even went as far as shooting themselves in the location of the tattoo.

There are all sorts of tattoos and I went in search of things I found creative and artistic. I’ve added a photo of what I liked.

The elaborate and beautiful tattoo is done by artist Eden Kozokaro, aka Kozo Tattoo.

I also searched, if I was so inclined, what type of tattoo would I get? I saw a lot of quotes, depictions of faith and love, but none struck a chord with me. And there were some really good miniature tattoos. Like the infinity symbol with a heart. Love forever. But nothing appealed to me.