Tattoos as Ritual

Tattoos have long been associated with rituals amongst tribal people. Young men would often be tattooed to mark their transition from boyhood to adulthood and to mark other rites of passage. The process of tattooing is deeply symbolic and contains many of the elements associated with ritual such as blood, symbolism and the awakening of the astral body through the experience of pain.

Tattoos and the modern practice of tattooing is seen by many as an almost mystical experience akin to the exchange of energy experienced during tantric sex or modern day sex magick. In many ways the level of trust involved in opening your body up to the tattooist is equivalent if not greater than the abandonment associated with the ecstasy and release of sex.

Nothing is more personal than giving a person permission to inflict a permanent mark on the body whilst drawing blood causing pain in the process. All the elements of ritual are present in this very act from the marking of the body very often with sacred symbols, the drawing of blood (life-force) and inducing pain which is seen by many as something spiritual.

Before the advent of modern medicine many people believed that pain rather than being an inconvenience was something that brought the person closer to their God. They didn't attempt to mask the pain with painkillers but experienced it fully. Perhaps practices such as branding, suspension, amputations and other extreme body modifications are a reaction to the spiritual emptiness or 'pain' of modern day living.

This spiritual emptiness of the modern world manifests in the obvious need for people to seek out meaning in their lives. This is apparent to anyone working in the tattoo industry who will tell you about the surge in people seeking tattoos that have a ascribed meaning to them. Whether that be a tattoo with some kind of spiritual significance or even a tattoo which takes the form of a sacred symbol or image of an Eastern deity.

Symbols have been practiced for thousands of years for religious, magickal and sacred reasons. We have become so bombarded by advertising images that we are almost immune to their presence. It is not surprising that symbols, sigils and seals would be used as tattoos. Many people are beginning to suggest that the placement of sacred symbols on their bodies can help with illness or grief.

The practice of yantra tattoos amongst the people of the Cambodia and other Far Eastern countries has a deeper meaning than merely warding off the 'Evil Eye' that our modern medicine has yet to catch up with. Not too long ago the medical establishment in their absolute arrogance and closed mindedness scoffed at the practice of acupuncture and now doctors are refusing to treat people with tattoos. What does that tell you?

Modern life which is absolutely devoid of ritual often chews up many people and spits them out onto the streets or if they are lucky enough they get trapped in the endless Get Up...Go to Work... Come Home...Eat...Go to Bed paradigm like mice on a wheel. Tattoos seen in this light can be a transcendent experience with the process of being tattooed, the choice of tattoo symbols or imagery and the pain/permanence factor all contributing to being a modern day ritual of sorts.