A while ago, I posted Sprinkles of Lion, proposing the practice of sprinkling your days with motivating tidbits in high-touch places so you’re repeatedly reminded to live like a badass, e.g. making your passwords and phone backgrounds something that drives you. Well, I took that a few steps further by getting one permanently imprinted on my body.
I got my fourth tattoo last week and most of the benefit I know I’ll get from it is far more than just the sick lion design I wanted and will now have for the rest of my life on my forearm. It was the experience and story that came from spontaneously traveling across the world solo. The timeline was as follows: get off of Mo Ganji’s waitlist October 3, book flights and Airbnb October 4, arrive in Berlin October 9, get tattoo October 10, fly back to SF Oct 12. Should also add the fail of going to the wrong Berlin airport an hour away from the right one and having to figure out public transport across the massive city, just barely making my flight. The nervous, excited, empowered, independent aura I experienced in that week is now linked to the tattoo I can see every day.
The Sprinkles of Lion concept has been my approach to all my tattoos. My “Memento Mori” tattoo has a similar premise, as does my wrist triangle and finger sun. And all are on my arms below the elbows, within my line of sight. A person’s meaning behind their tattoos is a personal thing, but it’s a fair question to ask considering we elect to get them on our bodies where everyone can see. I get this question often, so thought I’d explore my answers here.
Memento Mori means Remember your Death. I love telling people that and watching their faces morph from quiet interest to questioning discomfort. But to me, it’s not morbid or depressing at all. Quite the opposite actually, it’s liberating. I call it my own refreshing version of “Carpe Diem”. Having the saying permanently in my immediate line of sight provides two things for me on a daily basis—urgency and ease. 1. Urgency. It ignites an urgency to get things done and reach my goals quickly. When others are writing out their 5-year plans, I’m asking myself "why can’t this be done in 6 months?” And then I get to work. 2. Ease. It helps me chill the hell out. We’re all human and mortal, we all die. Our lives are inconsequential blips on the universe’s radar (watch Cosmos and have your mind blown). We’re here then we’re not, that’s it. That reality is like a breath of fresh air that opens the door to not caring what people think and living every day the way I want—optimizing for fulfillment, love, adventure, experience, and enjoyment. I originally discovered the saying from Steve Jobs, he used to say that if he ever woke up and realized he was about to do something he didn’t want to do, he’d change what he was doing. I thought about that when quitting corporate for self-employment and got the tattoo so I’d continue to think about it daily and to ensure I always feel that way about what I do.
My triangle tattoo, my first one, means fire in alchemy. Fire means a number of things to me, I’ll name a few. First, it’s the element that’s most impacted our evolution, we’ve evolved to rely on fire because of how beneficial it proved for our survival once discovered. First and foremost, it allowed us to cook our food. According to Harari’s book, Sapiens, this shifted us down a new evolutionary path because less energy was needed for hunting, foraging, and digesting raw food. More energy could now go to our brains, our bodies' primary consumer of energy today. As a result, thinking and language and social dynamics started to develop. This dependence on fire is most obvious when observing the newborn, the only state that has completely fresh, unbiased eyes on the world. Newborns will try to touch fire, they aren’t afraid of it. Rather, they like it. I find that fascinating, although most everything associated with evolution fascinates me and I consider it my primary guiding principle. Second, I was told when I was young by someone I deeply admired that I had a fire in me, and to always keep that. That stuck with me, and I got the tattoo as a daily reminder to never lose it.
My sun tattoo was a spontaneous decision when in the Canary Islands. This one was more superficial/lighthearted than the others, it simply reminds me of the beauty of those islands and that the sun serves as a therapy to me. If I’m feeling off, finding sun and basking in it even briefly can immediately reset me.
Choosing tattoos based on what ideas/paradigms/memories I want to be reminded of every day has proven a good method for me. I don’t regret any, and I’d argue they’ve all had a beneficial impact on my day-to-day.