The Tribal Tattoo

I am noticing a lot of "Tribal" tattoos this summer. It is as though suddenly there is a HUGE fad for that. Someone designs some funky looking pattern and calls it "Tribal" and suddenly everyone with a desire to connect with the primal within is getting at least one of them inked onto some part of their bodies.  Connecting with the inner primal being can be accomplished much more easily if one attends, say, a drumming circle, or goes camping in the wilderness (and by that I don't mean Central Park!).

Please don't get me wrong. I happen to LOVE tattoos. I have found, over the years, that people instinctively, without conscious knowledge, get themselves inked with their power animal or plant totem. It might be amongst a lot of other stuff that is inked on that means something or other to that individual, but the fact that they didn't know that it was their power animal or plant totem and still were resonating enough with that energy to get it inked on is, to me, admirable. But the marketing of the "Tribal" tattoos I personally find to be silly. Most of them have no meaning unless, like the one on this guy's arm, they are linked in with something that actually does have meaning, like the Yin/Yang symbol on his wrist. The rest of it is fluff. It might look "cool", but then it becomes cool fluff.

I think that if we are going to ink ourselves with things, those things need to have deep meaning. After all, it is going to be on us forevermore, so it better be something that isn't going to just fade away as the fad disappears. That is also why I have never had one done. I have energy tattoos, that some people have seen, that move around on my body like they are "alive". It never fails to freak people out when they first become aware of these "invisible" markings. But to get something inked onto my body that will last forever, well, that is just too much of a commitment for this 21st Century shaman!

Blessed Be
Trent
http://www.youtube.com/trentdeerhorn
www.deerhornshamanic.com