Thursday, 15 September 2011

My Bungai Terung


 


Ask me a few years ago whether i'd ever get a tattoo and it would be a unanimous NO.

Then a long and winding series of events happened and I got my first on my back. (Not many people know I have it to be honest.) it's deeply personal and means a lot to me.

So. While here in Borneo, I wasn't searching to get another but the Bungai Terung seemed to fit the criteria. Personally, I did not know there were a set of criteria to be filled.

The Bunga Terung, which translates to the eggplant flower, is the first tattoo a Borneo male would receive. The Bunga Terung is a coming of age tattoo which marks the passage of a boy into manhood. The Bunga Terung has a spiral at the center of the eggplant flower the Tali Nyawa, which means the rope of life and is identical to the underside of a tadpole which symbolizes the beginning of a new life.

All the tattoos, following the eggplant flower, are like a diary. A young male would go out on his own to find knowledge and from each place he went to he would get one tattoo to mark not only where he is from but also where he has been. From each place the tattoos have different styles so the regional differences in his tattoos would tell the story of his journeys in life.

Naturally as always I wasn't going to get something that anyone else would have so I took the basic shape and adapted it. This is what you see before you... I love them. I'm very happy.


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