EXOTIC TATTOOS

I have always been fascinated with tattoos, although never enough to get one. When I was growing up, only the “bad” boys and girls had them, now it is different and they have not only become an accepted form of self expression, they are truly an art form.

I have lots of friends that have all kinds of tattoos or “tats” as they call them. Big ones, small ones, very obvious ones and ones that are hidden to where only they can see them or someone who they share intimate space with. One thing that I have noticed is the level of art in tattoos has elevated to where the level of detail is staggering.

When I heard the quote from Rob Brezny, “Pretend your wounds are exotic tattoos” I was fascinated at the possibilities of what this might be like if we did this. With the men I coach and the groups I facilitate, it is very common for men to hide their feelings. Since most of our feelings originate with our emotional wounds, I found it a very interesting concept…….somewhat like wearing your feelings on your sleeves. When I was young, showing feelings was highly discouraged because how could I be logical if I was emotional……that is what women were. These messages helped me bury my feelings deep inside of me for years and ended up costing me a lot as an adult.

So not only now am I a proponent of putting emotions out there, I am also convinced if we do not, it will manifest in other areas….i.e., disease, anxiety attacks, heart attacks, cancer, etc. With this in mind if we went to the other end of the spectrum and we all wore our emotional wounds as tattoos…..what would mine look like? What would it be like to walk up to someone and see them in all their glory and pain and see their story written all over them and to have them see mine? We could no longer hide behind “I am fine, every thing is OK.” I’m sure it would have it’s challenges although we would all have a lot more compassion towards each other.

Maybe this is why tattoos got started in the first place……interesting.