The Mind of Jason

This is my first tattoo. I got this one done shortly after I asked my ex-wife to leave and it is a symbol of a deep commitment to an important aspect of my life. It depicts a red horned oriental dragon clutching the emblem. The text Dominie fuer oba appears under the dragon.

Each part of the tattoo has a very special meaning to me. In Asian culture, the horned dragon is the strongest of all dragons. The red dragons are the symbol for the West, and can cause storms in the skies when they fight. The dragon also represents courage, strength, raw power and force, wisdom and reason, protectors of sacred items.

The dragon is a reminder to me to try always to embody these qualities. They are qualities that I hope people see in me. One that I know for sure fits me is the of sacred items as I am very protective of anything that is sacred to me, especially those I love.

This is my second tattoo. I got this one about six months or so after my first one. It depicts the ‘Elit Druin’ from Terry Brook’s Shannara series.

The Eilt Druin is a medallion cast in the Druid insignia, that of a fist holding forth a burning torch. It is the symbol of office for the High Druid, or Ard Rhys, of Paranor. The Eilt Druin was worn first by Galaphile, founder of the order, and last by Athabasca, High Druid just in the early stages of the Second War of the Races. After Athabasca was killed, Bremen returned and recovered it, and forged it into the Sword of Shannara. It was the Eilt Druin that allowed the Druid shades, gathering at the Hadeshorn, to transfer the truth they had found in life to the Sword, giving it its awesome power. The words Eilt Druin are Elven and have two meanings: either “Through Knowledge, Power” or “Through Truth, Power”. http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Sword-of-Leah

As with the first tattoo, it has personal significance for me. I have long believed that knowledge and power are intertwined. This is one of the reasons I look always to s learn more. The more I know the stronger I become. Knowledge can be very scary at times. It can be hard to learn certain things; because of what they show us, about friends, family, loved ones and the hardest of all…ourselves.

Not only are knowledge and power intertwined but also are truth and power. Seeing and accepting a truth opens our eyes to what lies ahead of us, or what surrounds us. Once we can see what is there we can try and figure out how to deal with it. It lets us see what knowledge we need to acquire to overcome any challenges. It allows us to see our strengths and weakness both. When we see our strengths and weaknesses it lets us find ways to capitalize on those strengths and mitigate the weaknesses.

Individually both truth and knowledge can bring us power…combined that power is even greater.

This is my third tattoo. The text reads ‘beautiful’ in elvish and is for the beauty in life. The three roses stand for:

• red – respect and courage
• white – humility, reverance and virtue
• blue – uniquenes

There is a lot more I can write and say about this tattoo; however, this one has the most personal meaning to me.

This is my fourth tattoo and has the greatest meaning behind it.

I knew I had to get something for mental health. Mental health awareness and ending stigma is very important to me. Mental health problems have touched my life directly and indirectly for many years and as you can imagine caused me much difficulty at times.

I have seen the havoc it has caused so many people. I have seen the lack of understanding, about mental illness, from others around me. It is a frustrating thing to see so many people who do not understand mental illnesses and how they affect people’s lives. The people I am talking about are good and intelligent people, they just do not understand.

The information that is out there is not always the best information and the good information is hard to find.

For more information about this tattoo, visit my mental health blog: http://www.rising-phoenix.us/2012/04/mental-health-awareness-ribbon-tattoo/