Cue the circus music

I have just gotten my tenth tattoo which should qualify me as a permanent member of Barnum and Bailey if I didn’t boycott circuses because of their cruelty to animals.

 

For the last 13 years, since I was thirty years old, I have gotten tattoos with spiritual or historical significance to my life. My life is inked on my body like a roadmap. You can read my history by looking at my skin.

 

I have been thinking for a while about this design. I wanted this design somewhere on my skin because of the breadth of its meaning. The symbol I chose is a triskellion.

 

It is a symbol used by the ancient Celts to represent the three sacred realms--the Land--the Sea--and the Sky. I liked that because I like to think of the natural world, God’s world, as sacred. I am a huge environmentalist and recycling makes me giddy with joy.

 

It was adopted by early Christians as a symbol for the Trinity. I liked that as well because my spiritual life is really important to me and I wanted a constant reminder to stay focussed on God, which will help me stay focussed on Good.

 

Because a triskellion is in 3 parts I thought of all the wonderful things that come in threes.

 

The Past--the Present--the Future

Faith--Hope--Charity

The Heart--the Brain--the Body

(to quote from School House Rock’s Three Is A Magic Number)

 

Of course, how could I forget Douglas Adams’ Life--the Universe--and Everything.

 

But I still wasn’t convinced. I was waiting for a sign that this was right symbol for me--after all it is forever. Then it came.

 

I was reading an interesting novel called PopCo by Scarlett Thomas. Spoiler alert--look away now if you don’t want to know the plot.

 

It’s about a woman who works for a major toy manufacturer who is recruited into a counter organisation that “doesn’t officially exist” that tries to bring down evil, unethical corporations from the inside. She is on the verge of quitting because of the pressure to lie to people, particularly children, and convince them to buy their products--toys produced in sweatshops by children--when she is recruited. Every major corporation has a counter organisation inside who do their job badly to secretly stop you from buying their unethical product.  Ever see an ad campaign and you think, “What the hell were they thinking? I would never buy that now.” That’s the counter organisation at work. Same for adverts where you can’t figure out what they are selling.

 

Anyway--nearly everyone in the organisation is vegan (because it really is the most ethical choice when it comes to the environment, countering world hunger as well as the only choice for compassionate eating. Everything else-- even “free range” this “happy” that-- ends in suffering and death). The organisation has three mottos:

Do no harm.

Stop others doing harm.

Do what you can.

This was the sign I was waiting for. That is who I want to be. I want to be the joyful vegan who spreads compassion and kindness and love. This is why I went to the March Against the Badger Cull last week.   This was it.

 

So I stopped by local Tattoo Shop and made an appointment with Tom “the quiet man” Johnson my beloved tattoo artist who has done my last two tattoos. I’m really pleased with the results and it is healing nicely. I like that it is on my left hand--where I can see it every time I reach for anything (I’m a leftie) and be reminded of the Christ of Compassion whose life I try to emulate. 

 

Wanna see it? Take a squinty. If you look carefully you can see I’m wearing my Spiderman shirt. Thanks Mum!

 

I love that it is a revolving shape--it never ends--it turns like the wheel of the year. I love that it has meaning for me and will always keep me close to the one who fills the Darkness with Light.