When I went to Kansas that morning I met two friends of mine who were lost in an exciting conversation about tattoo. Abmi, a young girl suffers from neurosis manifesting in her habit of biting a straw in to pieces, had just had an ancient alphabet curved on her chest. In the meantime, Dalih, a dead famous short story writer who together with the handsome, witty, and debonair essayist of this column allies for an independent media called Carpe Diem, was just commenting on her tormented yet funny look when being tattooed. I joined them and soon also was lost in their conversation. That was especially when I suggested Abmi to put a halo around her alphabet.

          To my surprise, getting tattooed recently becomes a must-have fashion to express your idiosyncrasy. I remember it was about a couple of decades ago that tattoo was still a token for identifying criminals or gali shot by petrus (mysterious shooter). Now it is suddenly a fashionable indication of a certain lifestyles. How come?

Criminals this time are smart enough not to represent themselves in a vulgar appearance. When watching action movies, you are not seeing any traditional Yakuza as antagonist with shirt-like tattoo on their bodies; instead you may encounter a gentleman with tuxedo and of table-manner when having his dinner. The Yakuza wear tattoo as their traditional custom, so do Dayak people who cut their enemies head off out there in the Borneo deep forests.

 Important to be noted, traditional tribes all around the world are likely to have this custom of tattooing in common with their own reason.

As a process of cultural expansion, however, this custom then is taken by modern folks worldwide as a particular expression. Certain people maybe found himself (in the past I think male is the most likely to wear tattoo) identifies a character with tattoo as rebellious. Unfortunately, these people tend to be defiant to their society. Criminals, subculture followers, even high school pranks who find their class-life boring drop by at a tattoo-maker and ask for a drawing. Seldom, at that time, these people consider it as an art. Stigmatization begins.

Then all of a sudden comes the shifting. When subculture followers are getting highly educated, do not remain stick to drop out students, and people are getting aware of the essence of tattoo itself, they start to consider it as an exotic piece of cultural practice, even an art. Bobos, bourgeois-bohemian, as David Brooks once wrote about it, in particular take it as a profane cultural commodity and attach to it a slight feeling of idiosyncrasy. Tattoo then, is found on Johny Depp's arm as "winona forever" which then changed to "wino forever", or on Angelina Jolie's back as a motive of tiger's clawing.

People wonder where was she lost in the middle of Cambodia and get clawed by local tattoo artist.

 In my case, I am a Balinese and tattoo is really a matter. My society traditionally has this custom of tattooing a certain symbols on our body. My grandfather's father has at least three or four obvious tattoos. The most interesting are the ones that curved on his hand, Cakra and Gada which are the weapon of two gods Wisnu and Brahma. This is not profane, I warn you, because only special people dare to wear it. Only if you have mastered a specific level of divine or supernatural power which tend to be misunderstood as witchcraft or of evil Leak spirit, you may go to a balian, Balinese shaman, and ask for one.

I will, probably, get a tattoo on my body someday. But first I have to know the reason for what I did it. If I have mastered some of divine powers out there, why not? This is to avoid a silly motive on my body. A tattoo needs a great deliberation, for sure.