Closing it off – My friend Geoff
I started tattooing Geoff around 8 yrs ago. Its safe to say that we became good friends quickly. Geoff trusted me a lot, offering me large areas of skin to practice my tattooing technique in the early years.
Geoff asked me to do a tattoo for him on his wrist a few years ago as the start of a sleeve. The intention was to draw positive energy in through his right arm and in the future he would get a piece on his left wrist for the energy to flow out. We did this triangular geometry completely by hand ( without the use of a tattoo machine ).
Now this is the point when the journey gets very interesting. . . I would first like to allow Geoff to describe the journey he went through physically and mentally after he first started this piece (opened) 3 years ago all the way up to the completion (closed) of his sleeve a few weeks ago.
” I have spent countless lives searching for Spirituality or the Spiritual plane of existence. I have always been caught between the influences of what society forces upon us every day and that which comes from our past lives.
Throughout my existence, I have followed the way I have been told to live, the way in which my parents had led me; their way. My parent’s way is not my way; my way is exactly that, my way. my way is the spiritual way, the collective consciousness of my ancestors, the ones who have travelled the stars to guide me to this decisive point on my now thoroughly awoken spiritual plane.
The concept of tattooing has never been the issue, it is where they are put on the body and the perception from the external world that has been the issue. My parents demonised having a sleeve. Making out that it would hinder my possible job opportunities regardless of learning capacity, and I believed them. Year-after-year I would get tattooed, but I would never have anything on my arms.
The conversation kept coming to the forefront of my mind. So Mark and I explored some dynamic and raw concepts on starting a sleeve, we even did as much as to start on my wrist. After it was done, my ego came to the surface and an internal battle was fought and lost. Within the first 12 months I had the tattoo removed through laser.
Mark & I started to resolve my inner turmoil through personal conversations and questions about the reasons I fight against myself. Finally I was able to start taking charge of my internal dialogue, and doing what I wanted without the ego stepping in. I have since started a full energy sleeve that empowers my positive energy in combating both my internal dialogue and my external world.”
Geoff
When you receive a therapeutic tattoo you open yourself up energetically to a variety of factors. It offers the person receiving an opportunity to communicate with various energies and forces that inhabit the body. Since the body is a microcosm all theses interior energies and forces also exist in the exterior world. By use of the geometric patterns in this therapeutic manner the person receiving the tattoo is able to extract the cosmic elements from within, and project them around themselves as if forming a meditative mandala – their personal image of the universe with themselves at the centre.
This can be as in Geoff’s case a very emotionally charged experience. Energetic patterns of behaviour and self limiting beliefs usually come to the surface in order to be finally released. A “letting go” often occurs. Cleaning themselves out and making room for the full integration of the projected future self.
The last part of a therapeutic tattoo in the way that I practice it, is always a selection of small areas that are purposely left open. They are the central governing points of the design, and are usually in the centre and throughout the piece in a grid like formation. These pieces are filled in by hand (no machine) and are accompanied by various degrees of ceremony depending on the intention. At this point the ink is being structurally influenced by our intention. During this process the inks structure is taking on a specific geometric form. It then carries the information related to the receivers intention.
Me and Geoff would always talk about closing the tattoo off somewhere special. Out in nature, away from anything man made. A completely natural space with lots of elemental energy around. The timing around this event was so precise, and happened so effortlessly that I almost didn’t even notice what was happening. Half way through closing off his wrist, I sat back looked around and looked at Geoff and was taken back at how specifically we are able to influence our reality through the act of intention.
Well done Geoff and thank- you.
