iwanttogobuthategoodbyes

November 18, 2007

So, finally here it is. After many many hours of deep thinking, reflecting and travelling, many options, many doubts, many euros and (of course) some pain, I finally got my tattoo. I could write lines and lines about why I had it done, what the reasons are, and why I couldn´t anything but getting it, but it´d be fake I guess. There´s only one reason and that is I like it. Noone is forced to write or draw something on his body no matter how important that thing is unless he likes having it written or drawn. So there´s no more real reason for this than the fact I like it.

However, once I decided I wanted the needle to hit on me, there´re some reasons for those letter to be the Ones and for the feet to be the Place, as well as some other stuff surrounding this idea. The phrase actually comes from a swedish-rap-band Looptroop´s song which is one of my favourite tunes ever and which have been crucial over the last years of my life. One could no doubt say this song belongs to my Life OST. I discovered it a few before leaving to Sweden, an experience that changed my life and since then it has come to my mind whenever I was about to make a big decision or I was feeling somehow lost. I guess it captures a bit of myself in the way a part of me is always pushing me ahead to take new projects, new trips or new advenures, to conquer the world but, at the same time, there´s another one trying to get me static where I am, a part telling me: " hey man, remember whenever you go, you leave somewhere and that´s not for free, not to talk about the persons you go far away from". It´s hard to explain but it´s something I´ve felt the same since the first time I understood those words (already in Sweden).

Furthermore, the choice of the feet as the Place and the way the phrase is written is not by chance either. The first part ("I want to go") is set in the foot so that when you finish reading it you point ahead, meaning that´s the "force" which gets me on the track, while when you read the second part ("but hate goodbyes") you end up looking at me and somehow looking backward, meaning that´s the "force" that keeps me where I am and grabs me not to make any further move. Moreover, the "go" part is on the left foot because chinese tradition states men should always cross an entrance or enter anywhere on the left foot (and, since I finally decided to get the tattoo in Asia, I found it beautiful). Finally, the choice of the feet is because, since the whole story is about going or staying, the metaphoric (and somehow physical) part of the body which carries us wherever we go is our feet, so no better place than that.

So now you can believe the story or just take me as a poor freak who has to make up fool stories to justify his decisions (maybe the truth lies somewhere inbetween) but at least you already know a bit more of why those letters there. Anyway, I´ll finish as I started, there´s only one main reason to have had it and that is I LIKE IT :)