Dear Readers, the main article in my RHS magazine this month is about botanical tattoos. What a journey tattoos have had! They are an important part of many cultures (the Maori people spring immediately to mind,) and there are many other places where tattoos are markers of status, or personal history. Plant dyes have been the main way of creating the tattoos, with everything from the sap of the bloodwood tree to pigments derived from black nightshade being used. But when I was growing up, the only people you’d see with tattoos were sailors, dodgy characters of different kinds (one of the guys in the night shelter that I worked in had ‘Love’ and ‘Hate’ tattooed on each knuckle) or people from alternative cultures, especially Goths who had a great love for black rose tattoos. It was certainly a way of announcing your individuality, but you had to brave.
Nowadays, there’s nothing unusual about having a tattoo, though people will still sometimes be surprised by them. The people in the RHS article had tattoos for a variety of reasons. One person had chosen the birth flowers for herself and her sister. Some had chosen the favourite flowers of family or friends who had died. Some were embracing the spirituality of plants, especially their resilience. Some chose flowers that reflected where they were from – I loved that one woman had chosen a tattoo of ‘apples and pears, and oranges and lemons,’ to reflect cockney rhyming slang and her family history as an East Londoner. And some just chose designs because they were beautiful.
So it got me thinking about what I would have as a tattoo. After my mother died, my brother had a Buddhist mantra tattooed on his arm (he’s Buddhist), and I think that the pain of the process, coupled with his loss, was a way of healing. I might have had a freesia, as my mother’s favourite flower. If it was just about me, I would definitely have a jumping spider, and to my astonishment it appears that I would be in good company.
But I suppose the problem is choosing something that you know is going to be a constant throughout the rest of your life. I see people who have tattooed the name of their partner, only to get divorced, or who impetuously tattoo something that means a lot to them in their youth, only to ‘go off it’ as they get older.
I do remember an unfortunate Masterchef candidate who had had Gregg Wallace tattooed on his arm. I imagine he’s trying to work out how to turn the face into Marcus Wareing.
Also, I imagine that tattoos change shape as you get older and more wrinkly/saggy. But then, if it’s something that represents what you care about, I’m sure it doesn’t matter. But I am curious. Who has tattoos? Are you planning to get more? Do you love them, or is there anything that you regret? Any advice?
I worked in a London Teaching Hospital in the early 1970s and in the medical school was a display of tattoos which had been removed. The most moving were ‘numbers’ removed from Holocaust survivors. A magnificent fully rigged sailing ship removed from an ex sailor. Then there was one tattoo removed from a female patient which read ‘Keep off the Grass’ and had been tattooed above her pubic hair which was dyed green.
So if you are thinking of a tattoo you may want it removed much later for reasons yet unknown!
‘Keep off the grass’….love it!
I wanted one since I was 17, when a friend had a swan tattooed on her shoulder blade. My friend was black and the tattoo was black and I thought it was cool and beautiful. As you say, the only people who had tattoos then were sailors and convicts (there were no Goths in my youth) so it made a big impression on me. But I didn’t get round to having one myself till two years ago, by which time they are commonplace. I decided to have a tattoo to mark various life milestones including my 60th birthday (and because my children kept nagging me too – for them, not having a tattoo is abnormal). Then I had it done when I was 59 because I thought, why wait? I chose a swift as I love them. I am very happy with my tattoo, and it provides the occasional conversation starter. I’m now thinking of getting one of a salmon, another animal that is special to me.
A very good friend of mine also has some swift tattoos, great choice!
I have no tattoos. As you say, it’s too easy to regret later on. Though I have thought about it and if the Hull City Tiger wasn’t so sleepy looking, not to mention not looking much like a tiger, (see link below), I might have gone for that!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_City_A.F.C.#/media/File:Hull_City_A.F.C._logo.svg
My daughter finally decided to get one done in her mid 30’s. It’s a beautiful humming bird next to a stag all the way up her arm. Talk about in for a penny in for a pound!
Oh my goodness, the tiger looks way too friendly, a bit like that guy from the Sugar Puffs advert….(or was it Frosties?)
Frosties – Tony the Tiger! “There GREEEAAT”! 🐯
I have a tattoo that I got in 1983, before it was popular. It’s a hummingbird and a fuchsia on my ankle. At the time, I was quite young, and tattoos weren’t a thing for non-sailors, so it did not occur to me to get something more meaningful. I wish it had. I still like it though, as it represents a time in my life when I was trying to figure out who I was. One of my favorite tattoos of recent years is a simple crochet diagram of a daisy. The woman who got it is an avid knitter and crochetist and she had had a late stage miscarriage of a little girl she named Daisy, so the tattoo was a memorial. Tattoos that have a special meaning and aren’t just decorative are my favorite.