Tattoos seem to function as a modern type of post-it note – they remind us of the names of our loved ones, our children and their birth dates, just in case we should forget. They give us little reminders of what attitudes to take in life, what we believe in, and so on. The good thing is that, unlike little notes, they don’t get lost or curl at the edges. (But they may be inclined to become wrinkly and hard to read as we get older – by which time we’ve probably forgotten who we are anyway, let alone all the other stuff, so it doesn’t matter.)
As a Buddhist I believe that we should turn our attention inwards rather than allowing it to be pulled out in all different directions too much so that we lose our centre. In other words, I should live within myself – or to put it in a slightly more literary way, as my latest tattoo demonstrates:
