5 SensesAutumn Issue No. 3

5 Senses • Tattoos & Tourism

Contents

1

2 Cadiz - My Experience

3 Tattoos & Tourism

5 My Bucket List

6 What I Love About Travel

Cadiz -ExperienceMy

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My experience in Cadiz (South of Spain) was amazing. The people, the sites, the culture, it was all very welcoming and charming. The homeliness of this place was one of the things I loved the most about it, it is one of Spain’s cities that hasn’t lost its Spanish flavour unlike some of the most popular, tourist infested, cities in Spain.

Cadiz has a vast array of great restaurants and cafes with fantastically flavourful food, it is very authentic and enjoyable. It is truly wonderful when you sit down for lunch outside a sweet café, book in hand, camera draped over your shoulder, being bathed in the intense sultry sunshine. With this laid-back vibe, how could you not fall in love with this city.

It is hard to believe that with all this beauty in one place, Cadiz is one of the most overlooked cities in Andalucía. And this is without me mentioning the gorgeous sunsets.

The old city is beautiful and compact, walking along the cobbled streets soaked in centuries of Andalusian sunlight is very comforting. It’s quaint, historic and aesthetic and when asked about why it is so special, however hard I try, I am not able to put it in words, it is easier and better to experience it for yourself.

5 Senses • Tattoos & Tourism

Tattoos &

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Humans have been scarring their bodies with ink for thousands of years. The permanent designs, be it elaborate or plain, can serve as declarations of love, signs of religious teachings or beliefs, or they can be shown as symbols of status or a form of punishment. The earliest examples of tattooing goes back as far as around c. 3193 B.C.

Tattoos have developed significantly since those times. The equipment used in tattooing has changed immensely, tattoos used to be made by using a bamboo shoot sharpened to a fine point, with the ink being made out of water and coal.

In Kalinga province, they used to be head hunters, when a man went to battle, if he came back from it with a head, he would get a tattoo, the more heads, the more tattoos, the more desirable. For the women, tattoos were a sign of beauty, if you were ‘found’ to be beautiful you would get

a tattoo, and again, the better the beauty, the more tattoos, the more desirable.

The oldest living mambabatok (traditional Kalinga tattooist) has been tattooing head hunters and women of the indigenous people

of Butbut in Basculan, Kalinga for 86 years, her name is Whang Od. Whang Od started tattooing the thousand years old tradition of batok at the age of 15.

People from all over the world travel the distance and hike the mountains to get Whang Od’s signiture tattoo, three dots. The dots represent the only three practising

batok artists; that being Whang Od and her two great grandnieces, Grace Palicas and Ilyang Wigan. Over these decades of tattooing Whang Od has developed arthritis and due to the pain it causes, she cannot do a full tattoo anymore, so she tattoos her signature. W

hang

Od

Tourism4

Another style of tattooing that people travel for is Sak Yant. Sak Yant is a traditional Thai tattoo, first introduced by Khmer people of the Khmer Empire. Consisting of sacred geometrical, animal and deity designs usually complemented by Pali phrases that offer power, protection, charisma and other benefits, Sak Yant is very popular in Cambodia and Bangkok, Thailand.

Sak Yant is an ancient style of tattoo where you visit a shaman, you talk about your life values and goals and he suggests to you a design that embodies everything that is important to you.

Warriors used to get them for protection, for example, they would get a tattoo that they would say would ‘stop a bullet’ or back then, a spear.

Other tattoos you could get could be enhancements for things that you are passionate about; if you love art or are a business person, and you want luck in

business, or luck in love, the shaman can design a tattoo to help.

Before getting your tattoo, you have to get a custom made offering; you make an offering to a statue that they honour called the Ruesi, meaning hermit in English. The Ruesi is one of the most important figures in all of Sak Yant. As far as mythology goes, Ruesi is believed to be a monk that went off into the forest a learned from the

animals and from nature and developed the style of Sak Yant.

After getting your tattoo, the shaman gives you a ‘golden leaf ’, a small patch of gold somewhere around your tattoo which essentially means good karma; for example, by giving something of value, it makes you open

Sak Yant

5 Senses • Tattoos & Tourism

My Bucket

List

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When it comes to traveling, I have had a bucket list since I was 11 years old. The thought of seeing new places, hot or cold was intriguing and inspiring to me. The idea of getting to visit and see the variation of different cultures happening around me found a special place in my heart, and I have never forgotten about it. My best friend and I talk about it all the time and we have done for the past four years.

I think that it is very healthy and practical to make bucket lists, and I highly recommend making one especially when it comes to travelling.

• Amsterdam, The Netherlands

• Nice, France

• Bali, Indonesia

• Adelaide, Australia

• California, United States of America

• Vancouver, Canada

• Athens, Greece