ROSEWITTA GEWA
An entry in the Crocodile Prize
PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum
Award for Essays & Journalism
AS someone once said, ‘To escape fear, you have to go through it, not around it’.
Some people have the fear of snakes, spiders, travelling on planes or getting into an accident. I had a fear of needles and this is how I overcame it. (If you’re wondering if I went to a hospital, the answer is no.)
Going to the doctor for an injection or pricking a finger in a blood test are unavoidable parts of life. I clench my teeth and keep my eyes tightly closed during those moments.
So to overcome my fear, I decided to have a needle poking and cutting my skin for half an hour. I went under the needle for my first tattoo.
People have their own reasons for getting a tattoo. It’s the latest fad among the younger generation; a form of individual identity it symbolizes the transition from childhood into young adulthood.
You see many young people sporting tattoos on their upper arms, shoulders and lower back, neck, legs, ankles and other places not worth mentioning.
As for popular designs, most ladies like to tattoo their lower back with hearts and roses; for the guys, it’s either skeletons or tribal or cultural designs.
Just go to Facebook and you’ll see your friends uploading photos of their new tattoos and you’ll see just how many people are interested in the practice.
Having a tattoo is part of growing up, being cool or fitting in with the crowd. You appear as more mature and experienced than your friends. It may sound crazy, but in my case it was the perfect means for tackling my fear of needles.
There are electric tattoo machines that professional tattooists use in their parlours. The tattoo machine resembles a dental drill that moves the needle up and down to puncture the skin between 50 and 3,000 times a minute.
Tattoo artists create tattoos by injecting ink into a person’s skin through the needle, which penetrates the skin to about a millimetre and deposits a drop of insoluble ink into the skin with each puncture.
Then there are the amateur machines that anyone can come up with. All it takes are few batteries, an electric motor and a tube system that draws ink into the machine. Last but not the least are the sterilised needles required by both methods.
The appliance used for my tattoo was battery operated and home-made.
As the guy brought the whirring piece of equipment towards my skin, I shut my eyes and tried not to look at the needle. A chill crept down my back and the hairs on my neck stood up. Heart beating, adrenalin charged, sweaty armpits….. It was like standing on the edge of a high rock before jumping into the water.
At the moment the needle started piercing my skin I felt small mosquito bites that turned into bee stings which in due course became small razor blades cutting into my skin. It was a sensation of the skin being scraped rather than cut and it burned. Anyone who tells you that getting a tattoo is painless is either lying or has a pig’s hide.
The whole experience was made easier by sharing jokes and listening to Andrew, the tattooist. “Some people like getting tattoos in unbelievable places,” he smiled and added, “but it’s private.”
I didn’t want to imagine.
Outside was clear and sunny but inside me, a storm of feelings raged. At the last minute I was wondering if what I was doing was right. I had to keep reminding myself that it was for a good cause and I was helping myself.
Of course I knew Mum and Dad wouldn’t agree. They would see me trying to be rebellious and causing permanent damage to my skin thus messing up my natural beauty or something like that.
Trying to argue that Mum has her whole left calf covered with tattoos from the Lido area in Vanimo and Dad has a couple on his face would fall on deaf ears.
Getting a tattoo is not a new thing in Papua New Guinea. Most of us who have tattoos may not care how we got them but tattoos have been around here for centuries, since well before the tattoo machine was invented.
Traditionally, body and face tattoos were common in the coastal areas of PNG, especially the Papuan coast, and it was an integral part of village life. For example, in Tufi, tattooing a girl’s face is seen as a ‘coming of age’ for her, meaning she is ready to be married.
After the 20th century arrival of religious missionaries and colonisation, tattooing was frowned upon. Some areas stopped but others continued.
In Western societies tattoos were associated with sailors, bikers and artists. However, the tattoos’ renaissance in recent years has gone to a whole new level of body art and identity.
PNG is one of the countries influenced by this recent popularity of tattoos and the people who get tattoos are as diverse as the styles and designs that they use.
To sit still for over half an hour and patiently have your skin pricked and cut and blood wiped off is not a pretty feeling. The design I chose was two separate barbed wires with a rose inside. I decide to get the tattoo done on my right forearm.
By now some of you would be having thoughts of what design you would want tattooed on your skin. However, be very careful as you don’t want to get the wrong initials or name permanently inked.
There were two friends who were exchange students at a university in Japan and, when their term was up, one of their Japanese friends presented them with cards bearing their names in Japanese characters.
One guy thought it was a good idea to tattoo his Japanese name on his shoulders. But, he took the wrong card. Only later, when the poor man was at the beach playing volleyball and showing off his new tattoo, that the Japanese girls started screaming, ‘Peter, Peter’, at him. He had his friend’s name etched into his skin forever.
At one stage during the tattooing, tears came to my eyes. Thank goodness a small needle was used. After a half an hour of keeping a brave face for outlining and colouring, the deed was finally done.
I had a piece of artwork inked into my skin forever. It is two years later as I write this, the fear conquering mission wasn’t cool but it was worth it in the end. And I have a great tattoo to prove it.