MY AMA'S LANG

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.