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| From left to right: Justin Tisdale (not pictured) |
Actually, I've wanted to get a tattoo since before I even came to Korea. Nothing ever really seemed meaningful, so I told myself that if I made it a full year without losing my job / losing my money / losing my sanity / losing my arm I would find something that made sense to me both in design as well as symbolism and personal expression. And behold! Some boxes.
Well actually as I explained on the original upload of the picture: the 감 (or "gam") is a symbol from the Korean flag which I originally believed stood just for the classic element "water." I had been thinking of something to get that was meaningful to me and also represented my time in Korea, and a symbol from the flag seemed appropriate.
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| The Joseun dynasty stole my tattoo design for their dumb flag like 130 years ago |
The 태극 (pronounced "taeguk", or the yin-yang symbol in the middle) was not an option because, as far as tattoo designs go, it's been done to death. So that left either a vague white surface or one of the trigrams in the corners, and since I am already something of a vague white surface myself, I settled for the latter. But which one to choose? When considering just the classic elements themselves, they all have a certain significance to my time here.
The top left corner (when facing the flag) is the 건 ("geon") and it represents air / heaven. Well, I did fly through the air to get here and then flew across many other countries in southeast Asia, so that's something. The bottom left is the 리 ("ri"), which represents fire. That one was a little harder to pin down. I don't know, I like spicy food I guess? Not much of a contender but still an option. The bottom right is the 곤 ("gon"), representing the ground / Earth. Definitely feel like I've explored the Earth more since leaving home, so that's certainly up there. And then there's the 감 ("gam") in the top right, which represents water. The design was by far my favourite and it symbolized the ocean which stood between me and my home.
I started looking into it though, and the gam stands for more than just water. I was instantly drawn in by how much I connected with the overall symbolism. In nature it represents the moon, which I've always been interested in as a link between cultures and time. Every society had some kind of mythos about the moon, irrespective of language or distance. The gam represents the son in familial relationships (hi mom!), as well as the virtues of intelligence and wisdom. Plus it represents the direction North and the season winter which serves as a constant reminder of home (so yes, my tattoo also includes a joke about Canada being cold).
So that's about it! The only other thing I considered was the direction of the slant. If I copied the flag, the gam should slope upwards towards my head instead of downwards towards my chest. After much consideration I chose downwards towards my chest for the important symbolic of reason of "Ah okay, that looks cool." I won't go on about the process of getting a tattoo / how much it hurt / tattoo care because this isn't a tattoo blog (or an anything blog, really). This has already been a wordy enough diatribe for what could have just been, "Check me out I got a tattoo." It's too late to open with that though, so I'll just close with it.
Today's title:
The top left corner (when facing the flag) is the 건 ("geon") and it represents air / heaven. Well, I did fly through the air to get here and then flew across many other countries in southeast Asia, so that's something. The bottom left is the 리 ("ri"), which represents fire. That one was a little harder to pin down. I don't know, I like spicy food I guess? Not much of a contender but still an option. The bottom right is the 곤 ("gon"), representing the ground / Earth. Definitely feel like I've explored the Earth more since leaving home, so that's certainly up there. And then there's the 감 ("gam") in the top right, which represents water. The design was by far my favourite and it symbolized the ocean which stood between me and my home.
I started looking into it though, and the gam stands for more than just water. I was instantly drawn in by how much I connected with the overall symbolism. In nature it represents the moon, which I've always been interested in as a link between cultures and time. Every society had some kind of mythos about the moon, irrespective of language or distance. The gam represents the son in familial relationships (hi mom!), as well as the virtues of intelligence and wisdom. Plus it represents the direction North and the season winter which serves as a constant reminder of home (so yes, my tattoo also includes a joke about Canada being cold).
So that's about it! The only other thing I considered was the direction of the slant. If I copied the flag, the gam should slope upwards towards my head instead of downwards towards my chest. After much consideration I chose downwards towards my chest for the important symbolic of reason of "Ah okay, that looks cool." I won't go on about the process of getting a tattoo / how much it hurt / tattoo care because this isn't a tattoo blog (or an anything blog, really). This has already been a wordy enough diatribe for what could have just been, "Check me out I got a tattoo." It's too late to open with that though, so I'll just close with it.
Today's title:
