Though you should never judge a book by the look of its cover, it happens all the time. For many years my tattoos have been well hidden from the public's eye.
I decided to take those pieces of art for myself and I don't expect other people to like or even understand them.
It might look weird but aren't we all a little weird in our own funny way!
Or does the look of all the ink makes me a hooker, witch, criminal or low life? According to some people it does. In the past, I have been judged by people, before we even had a proper conversation to get to know one another.
Based on just a patch of inked skin I have been branded all sorts of things.
Given all the comments and prejudices, I hid my tattoos for quite a while and only dared to show them to people when they knew me a bit better. Stupid I know....
Luckily times have changed and I no longer hide behind long sleeves and pants. I am who I am. There’s no point in changing that!
And believe me, if making food and loving life, my hubby and cats is a crime, then I commit. I'm guilty!
Strange that some people make these assumptions a reality in their head before they even said one word or asked one question about your life.
Many years ago when I started working as a plant scientist, just after finishing university, I was sitting at a table enjoying my lunch with my new colleagues. We were talking about the previous jobs we had as a student during the summer holidays, going from delivering mail and babysitting to working in a restaurant.
While this seemed like a normal chat one of my colleagues then said something like “the most horrible job I did was doing line work with some tattoo covered criminals and low lifes.”
Though she didn’t take the time to chat with those people and get to know them, she classified them as criminals and low lifes.
Why? Just because they like art and ink?
And what was even worse, a lot of people on the table seemed to agree with her thoughts. How could they be so shallow and naive to judge a person by its appearance?
My hubby and I got married in Curacao and took a matching tattoo as a wedding ring. Somehow the word got out and my tattoos were no longer a secret on the work floor.
After having a chat and explaining the events of one of my first working days, the woman who made the statement earlier was standing right next to me and said yes but I didn't mean you. You are different.... but how did she know.
Apparently, she never interacted or took the time to get to know her previous colleagues... So how does she know I'm different. Well, she got the know me first with no prejudices in her mind and she started to like me for who I was...
The funny thing is that we actually became friends and it thought her a thing or two about having prejudices...
Though tattoos are going more mainstream, I still get a few looks from time to time and was required to cover them at some points…..
Only recently I was buying tomatoes at the small street shop next to our house. Since we always go to the market I haven’t been over to them quite often and while I ordered those tomatoes in my perfect broken Khmer, the lady froze and started staring at my left arm without producing a single word!! Odd!!!!!.
I had to ask a few times about the price of the tomatoes until the veggie lady’s son who strangely enough also had a big tattoo on his arm stepped in.
Later I learned that in Cambodia and Thailand, girls with big or a lot of tattoos are seen as hookers or sometimes witches by some people…
So for her son it was perfectly normal to have a tattoo, but that strange foreign girl that was buying tomatoes with a strange looking cat on her upper arm… well that’s a different story it seems.
Soulsister Stars
FROM CRIMINAL TO LOW LIFE TO HOOKER, STOP JUDGING US BY OUR INK! WE MIGHT BE THE NICEST PERSON YOU EVER MEET!!!!
