When I was a child, I
always thought about ‘the three black’ parts of my Ama’s (mother) body. I thought it was some kind of permanent
patches. But later on with the age I came to know that these patches are called
Lang(tattoo), an ancient art form.
After knowing that, I saw there an art. From then, the tattoo attracted me to
write about it, about my ama’s lang.
I want to thank my ama for inspiring
me to write about it.
"I made the
tattoos because it makes me beautiful", is the first thing she expressed
to me when I asked about her tattoo. She added that when she was young and got
married, she wore Hakku Patasi, which
has the combination of red and black color along with white Khasto and with those, the tattoo made
her look sensational. She giggled and said,” As the young girls wear lipstick
to look stunning now, at that time we made tattoo just because we wanted to
become gorgeous like heroine.” Even then and now the concept of looking
beautiful is always there for girls only the way to look beautiful is
different.
Like my ama, many other amas and abuas(father)
have lang. Everybody including my
mother has the same answer that they all made tattoo only because their friends
made it too. My mother has three tattoos, one at her left wrist and one each on
her legs. For me the single tattoo means "ahhh its hurt" and my
mother has three. I can only imagine how much it must have hurt.
On her left wrist, she
has a tattoo of Lord Krishna playing flute and on her legs, there are the
tattoo of ‘Tiki Jhya’ (a window which
has a lot of holes as a space) and a snake. The Lord Krishna is so beautiful. I
can see his flute, his jewelers, his cloth, the beautiful peacock wings but
little bit kind of blur as the skin of my mother has been so loose because of
her age. Similar is the case of another tattoo as well. A type of wrinkles is
there so I hardly can see the perfect lines of Tiki Jhya and snake even though it is attractive today as well. I
wish I would have seen it in her young age. At the age of 14 she made the
tattoo of Lord Krishna and the Tiki Jhya at the age of 15 and she added snake
on two legs at the age of 20. I was shocked when she told me the age and more
shocking part was that she was already married to my father. Then suddenly a
flashback of that age appears to me, I was still playing, studying with my
friends and family. But, my mom!!?
Can you imagine she
with her friends literally walked from Bhaktapur to Singhadurbar to make that
tattoo? I am genuinely amazed after knowing that. From this, you can see that
there are a lot of changes and differences from that time to now. It is not a
joke to walk that far. Now if someone asks you to walk, surely you will
hesitate. But when you look at my mom’s time it seems nothing to them to walk
that far. They made it look so easy.
My mother's name is Krishna Maya and I thought
this was the reason for the tattoo of Lord Krishna but it is not so because I
have seen many people’s tattoo of my mother’s age with that particular tattoo.
Then I came to realize that it was not the name but it was a fashion of the
time.
In present context,
people pay thousands for a single tattoo so I asked my mother about the then
price. She said when she made the Krishna, it costs only 25 paisa, the Tiki Jhay costs 4 rupees and when she added
the snake it costs 75 paisa. So all together it costs 5 rupees. Now you think
that 5 rupees is not that big amount but for my mother in that period, it was a
lot. She did not have that much money. She got the money by planting rice for 3
days in someone else’s field only to make tattoo. By working 3 days there she
got 9 rupees as her salary. And only then her dream of getting a tattoo was
fulfilled. As interest is boundless, my mother has also the interest of making
tattoo and she made it by working hard and saving money. This proves that if
there is an interest, people think of different ways to fulfill it and they can
finally get success. I also learned that if there is a will you can easily find
the way and sort it out.
Making tattoo has great
importance in Newari culture. They say that if you make tattoo, when you die,
you can sell that tattoo and live safely in heaven. So many people make it
thinking of this and my mother is also one of them.
The motive of making
tattoo is different between now and then. There used to be cultural and
religious perspective. It’s a tradition and has its own story behind. Now it is
modernized and more focused into fashion. It has become the platform to create
and display the art. People are accepting it as the profession as well. The
concept of tattoo has changed with the space of time. People were more focused
into the faces of god and goddess and other religious factor. Now you can see
various form of art over there. Similarly the perception over tattoo has been
changed. People used to take as a tradition and now it is taken as rebellious.
Where people is taking
it as a rebellious in some country like Nepal and other countries where there
is a majority of religious people, my perception over it, is completely different.
In my views, it is more than just tattoo. For me it is the way to show the
story behind making that particular tattoo. As for example the world famous
footballer David Beckham makes the tattoo with the name of his wife Victoria,
to show his love toward her and the importance of her in his life. Many people
make the sign of their zodiac sign. You can make whatever u like in your own
body. It is not bad at all. So I have an optimist view regarding making tattoo.
I like it and maybe in the future I will have one.
