What does my first tattoo represent? 又
So I’ve been asked over a dozen times what my tattoo represents. For as simple as it is, the placement in where I got it, and the origin and meaning of it is quiet complex but very simple to understand.
The symbol, the safe camp symbol originated within traveling communities during times of struggle; these people would venture away from their homes in search of places of better opportunity for themselves. In order to survive they adopted a code formally known as the hobo code. There was a stigma that came along with being a hobo during these times. This series of symbols would be left on tree bark or etched into stones. A placement of sticks and rocks to make said symbols in order to communicate with those traveling by in order to show the way, was an intricate part of their survival. These were people just like you and me, fighting their own battles, their own wars all in sake of survival. The safe camp symbol that my favorite band Circa Survive adopted and adapted by removing the two eyes that would be on opposites sides of the cross signified within these communities as a place of physical safety. A place where you wouldn’t be harmed. You won’t be arrested. You’re safe with us. Circa adapted the symbol and made it represent just that but much much more. They went into a more philosophical approach with the safe camp symbol.
Circa Survive had released two albums (Juturna, and On Letting Go) prior to adopting the safe camp symbol as their bands official logo for their third album Blue Sky Noise. They want people to feel that it’s safe to be themselves, to think for themselves, to be who they want to be, free from judgement, classification and ridicule. Their music not only does it speak volumes to me but it helped me stay motivated, it’s helped me stay true to who I am, and it’s helped me through the inevitable heartbreak that we all go through once in our lives. It’s safe to say I embody everything their music represents and everything the symbol conveys both in its original and adapted form.
The song that forever penetrated every layer of skin and directly into my heart couldn’t have come at a more coincidental and more necessary time in my life. My uncle had recently passed from Cancer and he was everything a man could strive to be. A loving father, exceptional husband and an even funnier person and amazing human being that was a like a 2nd father to my cousins and myself. It’s funny how things all turn out but like the saying goes, things always happen for a reason. The song Bird Sounds from Violent Waves. Was the song that dragged me out of that bottomless pit of a cesspool that heartbreak is, and I finally woke up. I began to truly appreciate the smaller and finer things in life for what they were. Waking up every day and taking a step forward to accomplishing my goals in my education. For as low as I got I eventually found myself again And rekindled that fire I always once had and there was no doubt in my mind that I was to have this tattooed over my chest and close to my heart as a reminder that we aren’t awake at all until we begin to start living.
