Ever since I was a very young girl, I have always been intrigued by many of the ancient world's customs and especially the ancient forms of body ornamentation. I would pour over old copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and every National Geographic magazine that I could get my hands on, just so I could look at the beautiful tattoos and mehndi patterns of women from far away lands and times. My father ran a printing company, so I would often get copies of the newest encyclopedias and lavish over the depictions of the exotically mysterious looking Bedouin women and their mehndi, and tattoos, and the depictions of Native Americans and their tattoos as drawn by explorers. I was always wanting to paint my face and body in the traditional ways of my ancestors, too. That had always been rather an odd kind of a conflict for me, being that I am a Jewish/Navajo American growing up in a non-traditional home where my family was trying to fit into White America.
At A Glance Author Mama Kin Contact Mama Kin@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Val York Studio Over the Edge Tattoos and Body Piercing Location Pacifica, California As I grew older, my fascinations over body ornamentation grew along with me. I began to frequently research depictions of ancient manuscripts, and Middle Eastern Paintings, and would moon over the designs of henna and harquus, dreaming of some day having such lovely artwork tattooed into my skin for all to see.
One day, I saw a movie called 'Passion in the Desert', and in it, there is a scene with a Bedouin woman who was decked out in beautiful mehndi patterns on her feet and hands, and on her face she wore black tattooed harquus. I was so taken with the beauty of her traditional designs, that I ran out the next day and had some mehndi done, just like hers. Well, sort of like hers, as the only woman I knew who did mehndi was from India.
I began to fall in love with the nine thousand year old art form of mehndi, which is also called henna, and became obsessed with always having my hands and feet decorated with very intricate patterns of many different types of styles. I researched many types of designs, and learned to do them on myself, but two certain patterns seemed to spark a deep connection within me. I loved them so much that I thought to have them tattooed on my upper arms. One was a pattern that would be worn on the ankles of women going to weddings in ancient Oman. The other was a pattern that was seen in paintings about the Queen of Sheba when she had her first meeting with King Solomon of Israel.
I am not one to just jump into things spontaneously when it comes to matters of permanently adding designs to my skin, so after about two years, and more earnestly desiring to have these designs to become part of me, I thought that the time was right to have them done.
My husband, son and I had just gone through some big events in our lives; we had recently sold our house to live in an RV and ramble the country, hubby had a very successful major surgery, and I had just quit taking very strong pain-killers after twenty long years of use and abuse, (here, I have to give the men of Aerosmith some credit...they are my inspirational heroes!), and it was my son's ninth birthday, as well as my ninth Mother's Day. What a great time in my life to commemorate!...in ink!
I had revised my mehndi designs a bit, making the one that was originally made as a hand pattern into an armband, and I made the other one large enough to look proper around my other arm, and took them to a little shop in Pacifica, California. It is a little ocean front town just down the hill from San Francisco.
I walked into Over the Edge Tattoos shop, and the first thing that I noticed, was a fully decked out Harley Davidson bike with a sign hung on it that says, 'fuck with the bike, and you'll fuck with me'. Then the owner, who is this big beautiful leather wearing, bike riding, Janis Joplin loving wonderful gal named Valerie took a look at my designs. Seeing that one needed more revisions, she went over to her desk and did the work right there in a matter of five minutes. Very quick. She quoted me a price that we agreed upon for the two armbands, and she got to work.
Valerie carefully traced the design, and transferred the pattern onto my right biceps. It is a fine-line pattern in black that women in Oman wore as mehndi to weddings around their ankles in the ancient times. I hadn't gotten any tattoos in years, so I was a bit apprehensive. As I sat in her chair, Valerie put on some music, by Janis Joplin, of course, and got to tattooing me. I took a deep breath as the needles of the tattoo gun penetrated my skin, but soon eased into the sensation. It didn't take too long for my endorphins to kick in, and the tattooing actually began to feel pleasant. At one point, Valerie asked me if I felt any weird feeling in my heart as she passed a spot on my inner arm, but I hadn't. The design was rather elaborate, and took longer than anticipated...about two and one half-hours. When she was done, Valerie handed me a mirror. I was really nervous and at the same time very anxious to see my new tattoo. I took a careful look.... It was wonderful!! She mad e it out exactly as I had drawn it up to look!!! That made me even more excited to get the tattoo on my left arm, but she had to close for Fog Fest and take care of my other tattoo another day. Awwww!
My story really has no moral or point to it. Just an anecdote about my tattoo and how it came into being.
I love my tattoo to this day, and have since gotten not only the Queen of Sheba design, but some others as well. My next one is on the drawing board as I write this story. (To be continued...)