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Discourse: Tattooing & Tapasya

 

Tapas(ya) in Sanskrit; can mean heating, penance and austerity.  In tantrik and yogic usage, it refers to the heat created by austerity.  Fire and heat can heal, cook food, and purify water.  It can also destroy.   Penance or austerity in this context is not the typical western definition: (Self-inflicted punishment by the pious to atone for sin or wrongdoing)… It is a act of Will to go beyond the flesh - heating up of the inner “hearth” with acutely applied focus to carry the practitioner beyond their flesh and into alignment with spirit and their divine nature.

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For those unfamiliar with South Asian societies, picture if you will, a sadhu or monk lying on a bed of nails.  There is a trick to this and the more nails you have spread over the surface area, the less likely they are to cause injury or puncture.   All tricks aside,  these extreme auserities (always difficult and often painful to the body) are used as a catalyst to bring  body under control of the mind and will, and, as a matter of course, aligning the individual spirit (Microcosm) with the the Macrocosm ( Cosmic Spirit, God, Absolute etc) and the Great Mystery. 

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For many thousands of years these types of practices have led some aspirants to the ultimate goal, and others into the depths of insanity, neurosis, psychosis or simply anchoring them deeper and ever more fixedly to the world of ego and delusion. It is here that the five senses are continually fed and allowed to run roughshod over the higher faculties, often leaving them dormant, unexpressed and unrealized. 

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Present day; tattooing has become a much more visible and acceptable practice and occupation, as is the wearing of permanent marks in the skin. This is a practice that can be found farther back than written record on nearly all continents of the earth. Some form of scarring or marking the body has been practiced everywhere by our collective ancestors and while many now see it as simply a new signpost or accessory, there are some who have found a deeper wellspring within, while undergoing such physical rigors – the Tapasya of Tattoo.  ​

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For myself, I have come to understand the fire that tattooing puts in your flesh and the mental and physical fortitude that this process requires as an austerity.  Instead of attachment to my physical body, I sense this peeling back of layers to be a process that engages non-attachment and a reality check on the fleeting nature of the senses; as well as life itself.  

 

The mental focus one needs to employ when sitting for several hours of tattooing is substantial. The usual body response to this type of sensation can be overwhelming and indeed, does cause some people to hyperventilate, go into shock, tense the body and fight against the work being done.  For my clients, I am happy to report that often, with a bit of coaching, a very different effect is observed.  The needles hit, endorphins rush into the system and the body and its responses can be controlled with proper breathwork. Peacefulness, levity, and even euphoria are common.  Here one opens a door into deeper level work that goes beyond the ego and suface value of the tattoo itself. This is what makes the more intentional approach to tattooing so much more valuable.

 

I often tell my clients that the tattoo experience is 90 percent mental. Mindset is damn near everything!  This is true of most things, but it bears itself out in the process of being tattooed in the most primal of ways. We are in phase of society where many of us have forgotten that we are still human animals.  I think we can all agree that the human ability to manipulate nature and engineer technology has not created a better more holistically balanced way of life.   Quite the opposite actually, as our reiiance on technology has likely increased the state of our mental, emotional and spiritual dis-ease and disconnectedness.  It may be that in order to find that more whole state, that we should explore our own inborn faculties more deeply and bring them out of dormancy.  Austerities can be a doorway to this.

 

For most, the common response to pain is that it must be mitigated quickly and medicated away. Still less do we make the time to stop in our daily grind to appreciate the amazing interconnectedness of the body, it’s capacity to heal, the dermis’ magical capacity to hold ink for our lifespan, and the mind’s gymnastics and methods of coping when we willfully put ourselves through a painful yet potentially enriching ordeal.  This "ordeal" becomes a Rite of Passage with the proper mindset. It is best attained and attuned to by PRESENCE.  Being present in an everyday situation is one thing..   quite another when you have needles tickling your ribs!  By being fully present with your sensations, using the breath patterns and mental focus that I introduce during the sessions and fully accepting your choice to udnergo this rite or passage, these moments can completely transform you.

 

So this is my invitation to anyone getting tattooed after reading this, to explore these concepts in practice.  What do you notice about your overall tattoo experience?  What changed or did not change?  Did you really invest yourself in being present with all the sensations?  The minute to massive differences in intensity of the sensations from one square centimeter of skin to another?  What changed about your approach and mindset from beginning to end?  

 

​If you have feedback and would like to share,  I want to hear from you- email me at tattoovinyasa@gmail.com.  

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Warm Regards,

– Jon Osiris

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