Mystery Tattoo

I am an H.P. Lovecraft fan, well as much as I am a fan of anything anyway. I tend not to obsess over any one subject, but rather take from them what I like and move on. Lovecraft not only frightens me on a visceral level, his writings create such a full and dynamic reality that I often find myself believing his stories as truth. One of the concepts he shares with other pagan belief systems is the magical alphabet. This is a letter for letter replacement code that when written with deliberate strokes infuses the words with power. If you haven't gathered the connection yet, my tattoo is made with such an alphabet based on the work of Lovecraft.

The answer to, "what does your tattoo say?" is one I rarely share. During the summer the question comes out of the mouths of far too many people, most of which would probably never speak to me if their curiosity hadn't made them ignore social niceties. The requires all this background information that generally falls on deaf ears. If I choose to try and answer at all, I generally begin by questioning whether the know of Lovecraft. If the answer to that is no, I go to my old stand by, "It's a long story." If I think they might get it, I explain what I just have explained to you.

Then onto what the words are and why I choose them. Wisdom, Knowledge and Magick. Knowledge, because I spend everyday of my life in pursuit of information, anything from idle trivia to a greater understanding of the Universe. I think that a day where we have learned nothing is a waste. Wisdom, because without it, knowledge is useless. While knowledge can be obtained by anyone though many means, wisdom is only granted through experience and truly listening. Magick is a bit more complicated. I believe that everywhere we look magick exists and that it is only when we stop and look for it that it may be found. It is the unknowable that holds us all together. It is the thing that makes us wake up in the morning believing that we were meant for something more than what we seem. It is your God or gods, your universal energy and it is ignored by far too many of us.

I tattooed these words on my arm as a powerful reminder to myself of the value of these things. I hope that I am granted knowledge, wisdom and magick in my life every single day. Now you see why I don't explain them to everyone who asks, the answer is rather involved. People have said that it is folly to tattoo anything on yourself that you don't feel comfortable explaining to strangers on a regular basis. I accept that I will continue to be asked, but that doesn't mean that everyone gets the answer. So consider yourselves lucky to have heard the story because I'll not be repeating it here again, just another piece to the puzzle.