Tattoo time at Golden Hands, Tirana

March 19, 2018 - By The Balkanista

I love tattoos, I always have, and much to my mothers disdain I currently have nine and no intention of stopping.

I tend to get them at pivotal moments in my life or after a period of big change. They don’t have meanings as such but rather they represent moments in time that I mark by getting someone to put ink into my skin. At the moment, I have the following:

Several stars on my back, Cornwall, UK
The Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland (in the style of Alphonse Mucha), Bristol, UK
A bow on my wrist, Paceville, Malta
A heart behind my ear, Paceville Malta,
A heart on my tow (DIY with a pin and Indian ink), Bristol, UK
“Summer” by Alphonse Mucha on my left side, Paola, Malta
“Alis Volat Propriis” on my left side, Limassol, Cyprus
A quote from Dante’s Inferno, in old Italian on my right forearm, Tirana, Albania

Number 9 I got today.

When I was a child, we had a bunch of peacock feathers in our house and I was fascinated by the colours and the iridescence of the “eye”. Fast forward many years and I chose a peacock feather as the logo for my business as I was playing on the notion of a quill- a feather with a sharpened point that was once used to write with. The business was a success and I considered the symbol as an incredibly lucky one. Then one day when I was walking in Tirana, I spotted a wonderful piece of street art featuring a beautiful peacock with its colourful feathers trailing through the image. I photographed it and used it as the background to this blog which has also brought me extremely good luck and fortune. There are various other instances of this symbol appearing in my life to signal the beginning of something good or favourable, and for this reason, I consider it to be my lucky charm.

But the peacock feather has many symbolic meanings in a wide range of cultures. In Ancient Greece, the goddess Hera created the peacock from Argus who had 100 eyes and the tail feathers of the bird represented heaven and the “eyes” of the stars. The Romans considered peacocks to be the birds of Juno and used their image on their coins. In the Hindu religion, the peacock is associated with the goddess Lakshmi who represents fortune, compassion, kindness and patience, and the birds are said to have a connection with Lord Krishna who adorned himself with their feathers. In Buddhism, peacocks are associated with openness and the ability to thrive in the face of suffering, as well as to represent purity. Last but not least, in various pagan religions, the feather of a pea

cock is supposed to ward off evil spirits due to the presence of the eye in the centre of the feathers end.

All of those things sound pretty good to me.

I chose to go to Elton Murati at Golden Hands in Tirana, as not only am I a huge fan of his work but him and his partner Valentina are incredibly nice people. I decided I wanted to interview him as well- focus on his art, his inspirations, and the diminishing taboos surrounding getting, and being inked. In collaboration with Leand, a very talented videographer I wrote about recently, we filmed the whole two-hour session including my swearing at the end as the pain became too much.