Crazy way to start a day! I’ve been brewing the desire to get a tattoo since being in the Marquesas but had WAAAY to much ambiguity around the ‘what’ and ‘where’ questions to pull the trigger. Nothing changed this morning, except that I’d made an appointment to show. We took Namo (our dinghy) down past Cooks Bay in Moorea and found Gilles Lovisa’s waterfront shack.
These Polynesian ‘story’ tattoos are great for those of us inclined to want to piece lots of elements together, so I shared my joys and loves and concerns, too, and before I knew it I was on the table! Total trust in this stranger of an artist! In an hour and a half, designs for all these symbols would be forever with me: earth, growth, nature, flying, and my art. In this tattoo the mountains, the wind and birds can be found, as well as my new animal loves – a manta, turtle, shark and whale. On this meandering ‘trail,’ too, family/friends, strength/protection, passion/compassion and my three children ( I resisted doing your faces, H,M, & W!) are there. Ha, I could have kept on going … but for a first, we packed a lot in!
Now I have to cease my whale swims for a couple weeks, but I have an indelible impression from this stunning corner of the world. Think I’ll keep it!
Very nice Diana. So glad you didn’t go for the tramp stamp.
Hey Bruce, Good to see you here, and yeah, H, M & W were clear about where and what not to tat! They didn’t even think it was funny when I suggested I’d get their faces slapped somewhere!
Diana –
I commented on this earlier, but in my typical tech-challenged fashion must not have pushed “submit” so, I will say again, how much I love the story of your tattoo experience. It is a perfect testament to trust.
You told your story, and trusted the artist to interpret it with all the love, and all the warmth and all the authenticity you so magically express . . . the image of your tattoo makes me think of the ol’ Rod Stewart song with the lyrics “and you wear it well.” And since I am outing myself re: terrible taste in music, I’ll go ahead and admit to another song that always makes me think of you: “Count on Me” (Sumner says that song is super dorky and so is Bruno Mars) but nonetheless, there you go . . .
Hope this Thanksgiving day is yet another beautiful day in Paradise for you both. Sending love your way,
Lori
Lori! I am loving finally seeing all these comments!! I tend to forget I even have a tat because of its location, so thanks for the reminder! I do love these Polynesian story tattoos and am already tempted to do another, but for now, I’ll focus on creating more stories to tell! Always sending love your way …
Love this so much!
Thanks a bunch, Sunny! It was a crazy suspension of any semblance of control!