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!
