Meditation is an inner work practice, in which a person sits or lies peacefully and calmly attempts to clear their mind. Meditators will sometimes chant a phrase aloud or in their minds, or focus on a particular breathing style. By focusing the mind on breathing or chanting, meditators can clear their minds of distracting thoughts which allows them to reach a beautiful and calm state of being that is highly enjoyable. Some people enjoy meditating so much that they have decided to express their love of the mindfulness practice through tattoo art.
Nature, Meditation and Tattooed Human Animals
When human beings surround themselves with the beauty of nature, they often find themselves slipping naturally into a state of mindfulness, awareness and waking meditation. For city dwellers; meditating to music that includes nature sounds can help them to achieve a similar state of calm and and a sense of unity with the world around them, especially if they keep many living plants in their meditation area. Human beings evolved out in the wilderness and so contemporary humans have a bunch of animalistic instincts that are left over from this wild past. Connecting with this inner wildman helps to remind us that life, our beautiful planet, and our modern society with all its comforts and conveniences, is pretty amazing.
Lotus Flowers and the Lotus Position
Flowers, plants and trees are often included in meditation tattoo designs, especially the lotus flower. When a meditator sits cross-legged, with their hands either resting in their lap, on their knees or pressed together before them in a prayer position, the pose is called Lotus Position. It is often used by meditators when they are sitting on natural ground, even if it’s a grassy patch in a city park, while imagining the loving energy of mother Earth travelling up the body from the base of the spine to the top of the head. It is a pose that can help beginner meditators feel grounded.
Tattoos that celebrate the art of meditation often show a figure seated in the Lotus Position because this is the favourite pose of many meditators and therefore the most easily recognisable. For the most part; the tattoo art styles used in these lotus tattoos are esoteric or artistic in nature and the figures themselves radiate a sense of calmness and well being. There are other Lotus Position tattoos that have a less elegant and more humorous appeal to them…
If the Simpsons took up Meditating
If the Simpsons took up meditating, The Simpsons TV show would tell a very different story of family life in the Simpson’s household! The following two tattoos, of Homer and Lisa, father and daughter give the funny cartoon characters a whole new level of depth to their character. What if behind the scenes of the Simpson’s show; the cartoon “actors” actually do practice meditation?