One average day scrolling through Facebook, I came across a post which caught my attention: a theatrical production for Tartu New Theatre was looking for interviewees under the theme “beautiful people”. Vain as I am, I stopped on it and immediately sent them an e-mail proposing to talk about tattoos and how they’re a part of our persona and beauty. Piret Jaaks replied and told me she was interested, so we scheduled a meeting in F-hoone.
I didn’t really know what to expect, which questions would be asked and what direction the interview would go in. After ordering coffee and food, conversation with Piret started flowing and a question-answer type interview turned into an interesting discussion.
I’m used to being asked basic questions in interviews like “what’s the weirdest tattoo you’ve done?” and “how does one really become a tattoo artist?” but Piret caught me off guard with profound questions such as “if I gave you a card which allowed you to change anything about yourself, what would it be?” and “are tattoos a part of someone’s persona and do they define a person?” I found myself deeply analysing both my clients’ train of thought and my own: the stories behind people’s tattoos and how many individuals from entirely different fields of life have gone under my needle. We also discussed how some enjoy getting tattooed to further develop their persona and create something beautiful of their body, whereas others in contrast see it as a degenerative trait and as ruining the body. 10 000 years of tattoo history and people still see it as a negative aspect of our cultural surroundings?
We of course reached a discussion point of the effect of social media in our lives and how many mental health and depression problems Instagram causes for today’s youth. I have started seeing it in another light though: if you’re bothered about other people’s beauty and success, it probably means there are issues with self-confidence at play. Which is completely normal! All of us have aspects of ourselves we aren’t happy with but I believe they should then either be changed or accepted. Our life is so short, do we really want to spend it hating ourselves? One of my own goals is to find more and more parts of myself (both personality and appearance-wise) that I am happy with and want to focus on. As a good old overused quote states: you can’t expect other people to love you if you can’t even love yourself.
The interview with Piret was refreshing and inspiring and I can’t wait for her production to be finished. The premiere is on 22nd November in Tartu New Theatre. I’m already excited to hear the stories and opinions of other interviewees! I will definitely advertise the production to you when the time comes.
Photos: Siiri Kumari