My Henna Tattoos

12:30:00 PM by Lost in Translation 2 Comments A⁺ a^-

I love getting tattoos - the henna kind, that is. I cannot imagine getting a permanent one - yet - because I keep changing my mind about the tattoo I want. If all the henna tattoos I've had done over the years were permanent, I'd be covered in tattoos by now.

One of my travel must-do's, if it's available, is to get a henna tattoo; that's one of the first things I do on my first day. I walk and look through all the designs and tattoo artists available before I finally settle on a design. Unfortunately, I don't have photos of all the tattoos I've had since I started. I get them every time I go to the beach and there's a henna tattoo artist available.

For now, here is my henna photo collection, which will hopefully grow as I go about my exploration.

This is the oldest photo tattoo that I have available. I don't know where the others are (sigh). If I recall correctly, I've had two dragons and one more cat. The original design of this tattoo in the first photo was actually not of a cat. I couldn't pick any of the cat designs available; some were too sweet and totally not my style. The tattoo artist then decided to "freestyle" and amend one of his designs into this beautiful cat.

I think this is one of my most beautiful tattoos to date; if I was going to get a permanent tattoo, I would consider this one. I go this in Boracay of 2009.

MEOWR. Hiss.

My second oldest tattoo is this tiger. I saw it on the design books of the tattoo artist and thought it looked "cute". I decided to have it on the middle of my back for maximum space. I didn't realize how bad ass it looked until my friends saw it when I wore a dress with a low back. Thus, my moniker "El Tigre" came to be. This surprised a lot of people because of my sweet and feminine facade. But if I will get a permanent tattoo, I'd really consider this one.

I think a tiger best represents me - fierce, strong, and protective - and this one is definitely my favorite so far. This one was from Boracay in 2011.

"Back off," said my sweet protector.

I got this in Boracay of 2011 as well. My sister, who was not with me at the beach that time, asked me to get a tattoo for her instead. Since she likes dolphins, that's what I got. I'm not really a fan of flower or girly tattoos, and getting this dolphin felt a little bit too much for me, but I got one anyway because I like dolphins - just not as a tattoo. If you'll see me in person and you'll know this about me, you might be surprised because I dress up so girly and I'm quite feminine, but oh, I don't know, I just want my tattoos to be different.

Sweet or just right?

I got my most recent henna tattoo during the launch of the graphic novel Anak Bathala, which I as a book blogger, was invited to. They had an artist doing free henna tattoos and I immediately lined up for one. Mine says Haeja in Alibata, one of the oldest writing languages in the Philippines. This one was done just last January.