I've been itching to have another tattoo for some time. The first time I got inked was 2018, a sunflower lineart tattooed on my nape. It was really painful, I thought I would never want to have one again.
My brother had to work abroad some time 2019. Me and my siblings have been really close and we became even closer despite the distance and the lockdown when our father passed away in the middle of the pandemic. It sucked to lose someone you love during the lockdown. My siblings and I had to go through the stages of grief apart from each other, not having our support systems physically, feeling like we needed to go through our emotions alone. Thanks to the internet, we were still able to get through it.
Years passed by, the lockdowns were lifted, my brother went home last Christmas. Before he headed back abroad, we all decided to have tattoos. Each of us has our own styles, but all our tattoos are tribute to our late father. My sister had my father's signature tattood on her right arm. My brother created a QR code that links to a video he created for our Pa. His was also tattooed on his right arm.
Mine is a little bit different. I chose to have my father's full name in baybayin characters on my left forearm. I added a lot of topics for my daughter's Philippine Studies in her Araling Panlipunan subject. I started from the very beginning, before the Spaniards came. That's why we came across the old and almost forgotten writing system of the Philippines- the Baybayin. Some call it alibata because of a person that changed its name to the first three characrers of the Filipino alphabet: alif, ba, ta, but really it's called baybayin. Well, no matter what it's called, I am in love with the characters. It works so beautiful for calligraphy, and of course, it looks so beautiful as a tattoo on my naturally mulatto skintone.
The main reason I studied baybayin was so that I can be sure the right characters will be inked on my skin. I continue to study the characters now because I use calligraphy as my mother culture activity aside from crocheting, reading, learning to play new instruments (I bought a ukulele, and I'm training myself to play the keyboards.) I know that I am not getting any younger and my brain needs the workout so that it could continue to work properly even when I get a lot older.
I had my father's full name tattooed on my left arm because my father and I are both lefthanded. I had it put on my forearm so that whenever I am writing or doing calligraphy, I will see it always. I know I could have just had the normal letters inked on, but it felt weird and too normal to be written plainly like that.
The tattoo shop we went to offers hand poked tattoo. I tried that method because it was almost like Apo Whang Od's pambabatok. Instead of a machine, a needle is attached to a stick which to me looks like a tongue depressor or a large popsicle stick. My tattoo artist, Jazz, started poking my skin with the needle. I'm so glad he's my artist because he also knows how to read baybayin. He's done this before so he already has a template for the characters. He gave it a fading design which looks so cool. It has been months since the tattpp was done and I can say the shade is still very much the same as how it looked on the first month.
To be honest, I was dreading the moment the needle would touch my skin, but I really want to have this tattoo. Talk about tiis-ganda. The session was surprisingly relaxing. It might be because I have overestimated the pain and my body has prepared me for it, or it might also be because of Jazz's really light touch.
I'm planning on adding some more tattoos on my skin, but for now, I'll just stop for a while and appreciate the beauty. I still have to prepare my husband to accept that I'll be having another tattoo whether he likes it or not. He's not against it, he just doesn't get why people would want to have tattoos. I am just thankful that even though he doesn't get that part of me, he still lets me do what makes me happy. We are a living example to our child that people can have different views and opinions but they can still respect and love each other. Even if he doesn't understand why I like certain things, he just lets me be me and I think that is so beautiful.
