Express yourself

Some readers may only know me as Canadian Mennonite’s Young Voices co-editor. Not many know a lot about me. I have a meaningful relationship with Netflix, I’m addicted to Twitter, when I’m not in school I help on my family’s farm . . . and I have a large tattoo on my upper left arm.

Tattoos have had a pretty nefarious reputation up until a few years ago, and are still seen that way by some. Quite a few people I consulted before going under the needle advised against it, mostly because of this reputation and the permanent nature of tattoos.

After taking all of their opinions into consideration, about a year ago I endured two hours of searing pain to permanently ink my arm with a compass—for a purpose. I did it to commemorate my values and faith.

The compass tattoo was imagined in part to honour my identity as a global citizen. This has been fostered by my faith, by a three-year term with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Russia when I was a child, by my church community, and by my family who raised me with a global conscience.

It was also to mark a change in my life, a transition into graduate school at the University of British Columbia. My hope is that my continuing education will further equip me to practise good journalism on a global scale.

The tattoo reminds me to strive to work for peace, justice and reconciliation through journalism every day .

Maria Krause, 26, who grew up attending Langley Mennonite Fellowship in B.C., also got a tattoo to mark a change in her life as well.

Between her return from a term with an MCC Serving and Learning Together (SALT) program in Zambia and beginning her master of political studies degree at Queens University in Kingston, Ont., she got a dove on her inner ankle to symbolize her commitment to peace and shalom,

“My life’s work is built around [peace],” she says. “I structure my relationships around shalom and living in right relationships. . . . The dove represents that.”

Krause is planning on getting another tattoo of a flock of cranes. This tattoo will also be a symbol of peace. It is meant to remember an important part of her life when she heard a Hiroshima survivor’s story during a trip to Japan years ago. “The were looking at devastation head on,” she says of the nuclear holocaust that brought about the end of the Second World War in the Pacific. “I saw that grace and mercy and hope and love are always underlying everything. . . . We can work together and build peace and reconciliation.”

Landon Erb also had a life-altering experience that influenced his decision to get a tattoo.

Erb, 28, a 2010 graduate of Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, has seven tally marks tattooed above his left wrist. The number is a biblical symbol of the completeness of God. He got the tattoo when he was 20 during his Outtatown discipleship training in Guatemala.

“I was at a point in my life where I had a significant experience of God being complete and me not being complete,” he says. “I like that it reminds me of a past experience, but it isn’t just that. It has gained meaning over time.”

Formative personal experiences don’t normally come up in his everyday conversations, but because his tattoo is visible to others, people ask about it. “When people do ask about my tattoo, they can enter into my life in a way that I wouldn’t commonly speak about it,” he says. “People are struck by the story. It opens up a space to connect with people in a more meaningful way.”

He and his wife Jessica are getting tattooed again soon: Trinitarian symbols and verses from the Gospel of John.

Despite what some may think about tattoos, in my experience, when you care about something so much that you decide to get a permanent representation of it on your body, it’s an opportunity for dialogue about something important. Looking at my tattoo every day allows me to renew the sentiments for which I got the tattoo in the first place.