Inked for Life

For Christmas, my aunt gave me a book called Sacred Skin. It’s about the ancient Thai tradition of tattooing, called sak yant. These special tattoos aren’t just eye-catching designs or even a means of individual self-expression. It’s actually almost the opposite. People who get tattooed develop a relationship with a tattoo master, who is often a Buddhist monk. The master establishes a set of rules for the disciple to follow for life. These rules usually include the Five Precepts of Buddhism, the equivalent to the Ten Commandments. There are prayers said during the tattoo ceremony, and if all goes well, the tattoo should protect and bring luck to the disciple. But the power of the tattoo is only effective if the one who bears it lives according to the rules. Yes, the tattoo is a reminder of promises that have been made, but if a disciple’s life and actions don’t reflect that, the image is useless. When the disciple does follow the rules, though, the ink is very powerful. It changes your entire being, and it symbolizes that the disciple and the master are bound for life.

Jeremiah 31:33 - "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." God’s tattoo is what we find when we get to the bottom of our hearts. A permanent marker of our relationship with God, of our identity as people of God. A sacred image that reminds us of how we should live and move while on this earth. We each have one, and I imagine they all look a little bit different. Some symbolize our responsibility to care for others, to promote justice and equality, to place our hope in the possibility of radical transformation. “People will always do bad things and rules will always be broken, but as one master pointed out, the sacred tattoos are silent and powerful reminders of a righteous path that all of us, whether we wear yant or not, should aspire to follow.”

[Quote: Sacred Skin, http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Skin-Thailands-Spirit-Tattoos/dp/9628563793
Image: http://www.soravij.com/showcase/yantra/yantra.html]