darksailor

This past weekend I got bored and decided I wanted to artistically mutilate my body. When I was younger I used to cut myself. I had many reasons, but I won't go into those here.

When I used to cut myself I found that people thought it was sick. They thought it was socially unacceptable, which is fine, we're all entitled to our own opinion.

What gets me is that now that I pay somebody to mutilate me it's considered art. I don't really know why, but it's better and more acceptable.

So this past weekend I decided I wanted something other than a tattoo. I'm kind of limited since I'm in the military. However, I decided I wanted a branding and settled on the Hindu symbol Om (or Aum in some cases).

This symbol has held meaning to me for a long time. Technically it is the sound of numinous power. It represents, in its four parts, the Waking State, Dream State, Deep Sleep State, and Transcendance. To me, though, it is the sound of the mellow soul.

Om starts deep in the gut and is slowly pushed out through the mouth making a mellow, low, exerting sound. Doing this until my lungs are empty several times will slowly put me out.

The process of the branding was relatively simple. It took about 20 minutes and was performed with a cauterizing pen - very wonderful experience. I would recommend to anybody who likes getting body mods.

Anyway, just thought I'd put that (and the pics) up on here.