Why do some people get their bodies tainted with some permanent black ink? Why do some people damage their bodies with some metal pierced through? Why do some people ruin their hair with awful colours? Why do some guys work out so heavily just to get a pattern of muscles over their tummy?
I have asked these questions to a lot of people (only those who didn’t get any of the above done), and have got as many different answers as you can imagine. Yet the most recurring answers were:
· Those ‘some’ people are crazy
· It is just the passion of young people
· Those people want to stand out of the crowd
· They want to prove that they are different from the rest
· They are trying to get other people’s attention.
Well, all these are only true at the superficial level. But deep within, each one of them is wrong. There is only one reason for all that. There is only one, true, valid explanation to this:
IT IS LIBERATING.
That’s it. Nothing else.
You won’t believe me? Ask a girl who just got a tattoo done. Instead of telling you how painful it was, she would tell you how ‘relieving’ it was…how happy she felt when she finally overcame the fear of getting inked. Ask the guy who just got his ear pierced. He knows you are aware of the odd comments he gets from his friends, but he boldly tells you that he feels more positive and more confident than before. Ask anyone who has done any of these things. The answers you will get will not be related to fashion, or age, or style, or craziness…it will be related to mind and heart.
My name is Prasanjit Saha. I am 26+, well settled businessman, blessed with good group of friends, and few good achievements to boast about. And, that’s not all: to top it up, let me tell you, I am perfectly sane. But:
I have a tattoo on my right arm. I had my hair coloured quiet a few times. I have developed recent fancy for six-pack-abs. I am ok with piercing, but that’s not really my thing.
Being 26+ and being into business takes away my privilege to call myself young, if I compare myself with college going kids. I am a crowd loving person- I always prefer being among aam aadmi type people because that way I feel more comfortable. I believe in individuality, and there is no need to prove the proven fact (not atleast with tattoos) that every person is different from the rest. And being blessed with such a loving family and friends, I never have to crave for attention- I already get too much of it. And, that’s not all: to top it up, let me tell you again, I am perfectly sane. So have I proved all your answers incorrect, appropriately?
Tattoo…piercing…all this is not about fashion, or style, or trying to be a rebel kinda thing. It is not about creating a personality type, or making a stand, or proving a thing. It is like…a block, a hindrance, a…a…confinement that needs to be crossed, overcome and won upon. It is like getting over your fears, fighting with it and finally conquering it to feel free. It gives you a sense of freedom. It gives you a sense of being complete. It makes you more confident. It unshackles you from the bondages that you had tied to yourself for all these years. It encourages you. It motivates you. It boosts you. It recharges you. It liberates you.
So if you are still apprehensive about tattoos, piercing, hair colouring, six-pack-abs or anything of that sort, just go for it. The feeling of getting over it is overwhelming. You have to be through it to believe it. And once you are through, it will work wonders for you in ways you cannot imagine.
Leaving you with your thoughts now, this is Prasanjit Saha, signing off.
PS: Do your thing.