Hey, so I have been thinking lately about getting a buddhist/dharma tattoo.

Ideally I would want to get a Tibetan Wheel of Life tattoo, but I think it would be too expensive and take too much time to tattoo, also I think it seems too big for a first tattoo (even though this is not such a big deal).

Other option which I found interesting and is the main candidate for now is the Eight-Pointed Dharma Wheel (a buddhist symbol representing the noble eightfold path).

Does anyone have a "dharma tattoo" or have any recommendation of some image or symbol?

My main motivation for getting a tattoo would be the experience of getting a tattoo.
In the past, I got a piercing once, and I really liked the experience itself of putting a piercing (the operation, the pain, the reaction of the body, the healing, the risks, etc), but personally I think that a piercing can be more inconvenient than a tattoo (usually more careful and long aftercare and can be unconfortable when putting pressure on piercing).
I see body modification mainly as an art, so what exactly I put isn't extremely important, but of course I won't do anything "permanent" like that without putting a lot of thought in it.

You could get some erroneous Pali inscription. It might be the next trend after chinese symbols.


My girlfriend told me this story about her grandfather. In Thailand and Myanmar, Buddhism intertwined with many folks religions and people are quite superstitious. So in this spirit, her grandfather had some kind of spell tattooed by a monk. All his upper legs were tattooed with Pali inscriptions. The spell purpose was to protect him from all kinds of illness. There was a catch, though. If he was to lie for some selfish reasons, he would die an horrible death. And of course, he did. In no time he was found bleeding by the ears and nose in absolute agony. When came the time to cremate the body, it was found impossible to burn. The monk that inked him had to be called to remove the spell...

So the moral of the story: don't get a fucking Buddhist tattoo!

If you are doing it for the experience, you would be well served by getting one of those traditional tattoos. Since they don't use an electric machine, they take forever to do and it's being said that it's quite painful. Traditionally, they used a crow's liver in the fabrication of the ink... so you also get the thrill of potentially catching avian flu!

Some are quite beautiful.

Hahaha, I actually met a girl once that had a japanese tattoo with two kanjis in the wrong order


Fascinating story, note to self: no spells.


I think I should clarify something, when I mentioned risks as part of the experience, I didn't mean that the more risky the better. I prefer to have little to no risk, I was just mentioning how there are some inevitable risks in body modification which should be considered. For example, considering you went to a professional piercer, the risks for piercings would be mainly a rejection, which it's less likely depending on material, and depending on the experience of the piercer and the kind of piercing there may be some skin rip, and you have to be really careful during the aftercare. For tattoos, one must also be careful while it's healing, but for both of them, in the end, the biggest risk is that of getting a scar and/or getting a bad tattoo, which are no big deal usually.