In the last 25,000 years much of the origins and knowledge of the early medicine man and the use of placing marks or patterns on a person for spiritual and physical well-being. In this video we will introduce to you some of this deep inspirational knowledge that may open a more wholistic understanding of the tattoo process.
The following is a transcript of the above video
Welcome to this video on the spiritual tattoo artist although i’ve practiced most of what you will see in this video for quite some years it wasn’t until a student came on the course and said to us i’d like to learn spiritual tattooing and it came to my attention that this was something that we had been neglecting from our training program and that most of our course was about how to go about doing a tattoo how to about making a living in our industry and how to become a successful tattoo artist but this very important segment of our industry was largely left out of our training modules so i hope this you find this of assistance and maybe it will open your mind to new possibilities that are available to you and your customer in the tattoo industry
The tattoo artist has got some extraordinary skills other than the fact that he can produce a good clean tattoo and be useful as a person providing a service there’s a secondary thing which he has developed and he may not even be aware of his development in these areas and maybe you if you’re a tattoo customer may not be aware of it as well but just purely by the nature of his work he has developed this deep concentration he is working in a medium where he cannot make a mistake he is working alive on a person and he has no rubber he cannot undo a mistake so after years of experience he has developed a deep concentration which he can focus while he’s doing the tattoo as well as be involved in other activities for example chatting to the customer and so on at the same time so this unwavering focus that he’s developed has got to a point where he can actually go for many hours and most tattoo artists can go between six and eight hours without losing focus this is a skill that is highly developed in the tattoo artist he’s also learned to relax so in the early stages a tattoo artist will have stressful situations tattoos will become be difficult there might be straight lines involved he may be circles and various elements which he might find stressful but over a period of time he will get to a point in his mind where he is no longer stressed and yet he is relaxed once he gets to this point there will be a shift in the quality of his tattoos and he will now be able to execute highly complicated designs in a relaxed state of mind this is quite important and also he’s learned to accept the customer for who he is so in the beginning when a customer comes in you’ll judge the customer and they will have a particular hang-ups they will be in a particular mental state their actual spiritual journey will be in a different place to you and so there will be an element of judgment so he will have thoughts in his mind where he labels the customer and places them in a particular box but over a period of time the customers will merge into each other and the tattoo artists will get to a point where he does not judge his customer he is there to enjoy the experience and to share it with the customer
In spiritual healing it’s very important to lay your hands on the person so during the tattoo process whether the artist is aware of it or whether the customer is aware of it there is a mutual agreement that the tattoo artist can move within your own personal space number one and number two the tattoo artist has your permission in order to lay their hands on you so in this process of coming together and laying of hands there’s a unique opportunity where healing can take place so though both parties may not be aware of it there is an energy flow which flows from the tattoo artist to the customer the customer absorbs this energy and then they become revitalized with this process and this is part of the experience of the tattoo
So the process here is a two-sided process we have the customer and we have the tattoo artist so we’ve discussed the mental state of the artist who has some years of training and develop this deep state of concentration but the customer will not be in the state of mind this customer will have various fears and anxieties especially coming into tattoo shop if you’re a new person having your first tattoo you will be afraid would it be sore will i be happy with the design and the person may be carrying a burden as well so they may have anxieties in their life where they are in a state of depression they have anger despair maybe have a low self-esteem they live in a environment or a relationship which is difficult to sustain and they may have some sort of phobias and fears about various things they could have conditions like ocd for example and the inability to have a steady concentration to sit still and be quiet and they may even have some drug addictions
The customer may not have had any previous experiment with meditation quietening the mind or prayer so when they come into the tattoo environment and sign up to have a tattoo they are committing themselves to a long period of time of being stationary so this is a type of meditation type situation where the person is going to remain still and they are going to have a lot of time to reflect on themselves this situation and the development of their own personal psyche even though they may be completely unaware of these various elements of their own life and their own life’s journey now what’s interesting is that the tattoo process has various elements which work together with the tattoo artist to create a spiritual environment so what people don’t realize is that when they come into a tattoo shop they have some fear so this fear allows them to focus on a certain train of thought so their mind will run various mental passages or mental thought patterns revolving around fear and mostly this is a fear of pain so as the tattoo begins they will focus their mind on the pain at hand you cannot do anything else other than be present during the initial painful process this presentness or awareness of pain is called pain medic meditation so the student or the customer will have this opportunity to undergo a meditation which is further encouraged by the body releasing the first response to pain which is adrenaline once the adrenaline hormone is moving through the body the customer still has to remain seated this adrenaline will turn sour in this system and give rise to the body submitting another hormone called endorphins this is a feel-good hormone and will make the person feel euphoric and as though they drifting so in this state their mind will go into a deep form of meditation so pain meditation is a very powerful tool in becoming aware of who you are as an individual and to remove you from many of your sufferings that you live through on a daily basis okay so during the tattoo process the tattoo artist is in a state of deep focus this state comes about through him focusing on the task at hand this is very very important part of that and through this deep focused state focusing on the customer and opportunity arises
How does this unique opportunity arise this unique opportunity arises while the person is sitting on the bed focusing on the pain it is at that point that the tattoo artist invites them to share by asking important questions like where are you from what kind of business opportunity do you operate out of are you married do you have a family these sorts of things and by asking some various basic information from the person the person may begin to reveal some deep secrets within themselves burdens that they are trying to work through in their lives and very often they will reveal hidden dark secrets that they have to carry in their daily lives so this is the opportunity for the person to share their sorrows misery fears that they have with the artist but the artist is primarily focused on doing the art so he doesn’t stop to listen he continues working and in this focused situation and opportunity arises now what we have here this deep focus that our artist is involved in another term for that is compassionate listening this is a situation where the artist’s mental faculties his thoughts are focused on the task at hand but to the customer he is focusing on them so when they reveal their fears to the tattoo artist his mind his conceptual mind his thinking mind is involved in the process at hand this means that his listening ability is through a veil this veil is his consciousness so he’s in effect not conscious of listening he is conscious of the process that he’s involved in but deep within his consciousness in his awareness his peripheral awareness if you like he is aware of the burden that the customer is sharing with him and this is called compassionate listening this is listening without judgment no thoughts are involved on the part of the tattoo artist okay so the person is sharing they’re busy speaking to the tattoo artist they busy explaining what happened this explanation allows them to reflect and they will come to a point in this monologue where they are discussing and talking to the tattoo artist who is primarily focused on the task that he has at hand a point will come where they will be open for guidance and this is an opportunity where the tattoo artists can share some meaningful adjustment that they can make to their personality perhaps their perceptions are not valid perhaps they need to increase their awareness and this is an opportunity where the tattoo artist can provide some wisdom and some corrective measures that will help the person to heal in a deep meaningful way
The tattoo process is something really special the tattoo artist will be will feel completely drained of energy at the end of the tattoo he will have a clear positive feeling within himself the customer will have also been forced to relax will absorb energy from the tattoo artist and the customer will have had a unique experience that cannot be compared to any other activity that is available to us on our planet at all so this is a unique thing that happens and i hope that you as tattoo artists or as customers can also have an experience along these lines and perhaps if you’re a tattoo artist you will be more aware of what is happening to you and your customer in future procedures i look forward to hearing from you as to how you’ve experienced spiritual energy during the tattoo process