Tag: Positivity

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Kindness – a tattoo

Editor, Rosalie shares the story of her most meaningful tattoo yet. 

What does kindness mean to you?

Kindness for me means rejoining a weekly yoga class as a way to enjoy movement without seeing it as a punishment, something that I had been doing for way too long. It means starting counselling and commiting to it for almost a year. Kindness is turning my back on years of dieting and self hate in order to learn to be self compassionate and love my authentic self.

My yoga class begins and ends with a quiet moment of gratitude in a seated, comfortable cross legged position. The way I cross my legs or place my feet together, depending on how I am feeling that days, means my left ankle is always visible to me especially when I am bowing my head on my prayer-formed hands in thanks to my teacher and my body.

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My yoga teacher encourages us to choose an intention for the class, a word, thought or feeling to carry with us while we stretch and move but also for the week ahead. The word I always settle on is kindness. Not only to help me be kind to my body in the moments when I move through our sun salutations and flows, but also as I begin to look around the room and compare my yoga poses and ability to those around me in the village hall where we practise. My chosen intention is also for and towards myself always, whether I am at work or home and more importantly to those around me too.

I wanted to commemorate how far I had come, the positive changes I have made and my progress with the best way I know how – a tattoo. I already had the perfect gap on my left ankle, and an artist in mind who specialises in fine line work.

The artists at Francis Street Tattoo in Leicester have always been warm and kind to me and Ellie-Mae was no different. She helped make the whole experience so positive and she is super gentle, which is always nice. It was as if the ink, the tattoo machine and artist were all working together to pour kindness into my skin. To add power and meaning into a word that had come to be so significant to me. 

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Now settled in and healed, my kindness tattoo pokes out at me at the end and beginning of my class or when I practise at home. It is visible below the cuffs of my  jeans and my favourite dungarees, as a constant and strong reminder of my intention, the person I am and can be, as well as a promise to myself and others. The old English script signifies how far I have come, my history alongside the important work I am continuing to do with my mental health but also how far I have to go.

Most of my tattoos have no real meaning but this one makes up for them all.

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Mental Health Hearts By Callum Glover

23-year-old tattooist Callum Glover works out of Black Craft in Wakefield and Secret Society in Hartlepool and Brighton, where he creates blackwork tattoos. We chat to Callum about the hearts filled with positive messages, that he tattoos to raise money for mental health charity MIND and his own struggles with mental health…

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I got into tattooing after I had  been to college doing non art related courses and after working poorly paid jobs with little job satisfaction. I had been tattooed a few times with pretty poor tattoos before I started tattooing. But I just loved getting tattooed, so I remember going to get tattooed by a guy in his house (cringe)! This guy happened to become my best friend, he showed me a tattoo machine, asked if I’d like a try, so I did, I tattooed a small tribal design on a piece of fake skin made out of rubber. The tattoo was awful, the machine was cheap but I was hooked from then on. I’ve never been good at keeping quiet or staying still, or being told what to do, and with tattooing I saw an opportunity to do something that I’d be happy doing for the rest of my life.

So I looked and looked for around two years for an apprenticeship, all the while improving my art work, trying to find my style, which I’m still doing! I found my apprenticeship and the rest is history as they say.

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What drew me to the tattoo world was properly experiencing the tattoo world. I remember being an apprentice not knowing if I could make it as a tattoo artist, wondering if it was for me or if I fit in. Until I went to my first tattoo convention, as soon as I entered my mind was set to rest, I remember thinking this is it, this is my world, it’s where I feel at home.

Tattooing helped me so much, I could have turned out so differently, due to the struggles I’ve been through, but it’s been there for me and gave me something to get lost in. I’ve done a lot of tattoos, a lot I’m super proud of, but the ones that mean the most to me are the mental health heart tattoos I do.

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I remember where the idea came from, I myself have severe depression and anxiety and I’ve suffered for years. It’s ruined so many friendships and relationships in my life and it’s took me to some dark places. I remember having a really bad few days, where I just shut myself away, I was bitter and nasty, I thought I was a lost cause. Until I managed to drag myself through, with the help of a friend.

In the moments that followed, I decided I didn’t want to get to that point again, not only that, but I wanted to help others. So I designed a bunch of hearts, with positive messages inside. It is sometimes hard to take help from a person, and it’s usually the best option to help someone else to help themselves.

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That’s what these tattoos are, my customers come and pick from my designs or we create a personal message for them together. That way when they feel low they have a permanent reminder from themselves that ‘it’s okay to not be okay’ and ‘you are enough’.

If I was hoping to spread a message, then I think the message would be ‘you are not alone’. No matter how you feel, you are not on your own, help someone help you, reach out, seek help. I want to share love and positivity with every single one of these tattoos. Every single one I do helps both my customer and myself with the daily struggles that mental health issues bring.

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I believe that we can all do more to help those in need, show love, show compassion and show understanding. Just listen, any of these things could save someone’s life – I know from experience. So I’d say the best way to help is to pay attention, notice the signs and just be there for that person.