Tattoos as Ritual

Tattoos have long been associated with rituals amongst tribal people.
Young men would often be tattooed to mark their transition from boyhood
to adulthood and to mark other rites of passage. The process of
tattooing is deeply symbolic and contains many of the elements
associated with ritual such as blood, symbolism and the awakening of
the astral body through the experience of pain.

Tattoos and the
modern practice of tattooing is seen by many as an almost mystical
experience akin to the exchange of energy experienced during tantric
sex or modern day sex magick. In many ways the level of trust involved
in opening your body up to the tattooist is equivalent if not greater
than the abandonment associated with the ecstasy and release of sex.

Nothing is more personal than giving a person permission to inflict
a permanent mark on the body whilst drawing blood causing pain in the
process. All the elements of ritual are present in this very act from
the marking of the body very often with sacred symbols, the drawing of
blood (life-force) and inducing pain which is seen by many as something
spiritual.

Before the advent of modern medicine many people
believed that pain rather than being an inconvenience was something
that brought the person closer to their God. They didn’t attempt to
mask the pain with painkillers but experienced it fully. Perhaps
practices such as branding, suspension, amputations and other extreme
body modifications are a reaction to the spiritual emptiness or ‘pain’
of modern day living.

This spiritual emptiness of the modern world manifests in the
obvious need for people to seek out meaning in their lives. This is
apparent to anyone working in the tattoo industry who will tell you
about the surge in people seeking tattoos that have a ascribed meaning
to them. Whether that be a tattoo with some kind of spiritual
significance or even a tattoo which takes the form of a sacred symbol
or image of an Eastern deity.

Symbols have been practiced for
thousands of years for religious, magickal and sacred reasons. We have
become so bombarded by advertising images that we are almost immune to
their presence. It is not surprising that symbols, sigils and seals
would be used as tattoos. Many people are beginning to suggest that the
placement of sacred symbols on their bodies can help with illness or
grief.

The practice ofyantra tattoos
amongst the people of the Cambodia and other Far Eastern countries has
a deeper meaning than merely warding off the ‘Evil Eye’ that our modern
medicine has yet to catch up with. Not too long ago the medical
establishment in their absolute arrogance and closed mindedness scoffed
at the practice of acupuncture and now doctors are refusing to treat
people with tattoos. What does that tell you?

Modern life which
is absolutely devoid of ritual often chews up many people and spits
them out onto the streets or if they are lucky enough they get trapped
in the endless Get Up…Go to Work… Come Home…Eat…Go to Bed
paradigm like mice on a wheel. Tattoos seen in this light can be a
transcendent experience with the process of being tattooed, the choice
of tattoo symbols or imagery and the pain/permanence factor all
contributing to being a modern day ritual of sorts.

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