Body Vows: Jenny's Jizo tattoo

Our latest "practice tattoo" comes from reader Jenny W., from Okayama, Japan. About it she writes:

I got this tattoo of Jizo Bosatsu at Chopstick Tattoo in Osaka, Japan in May 2006. The artist was Magoushi and I would recommend him highly to anyone in, or travelling to, the Kansai area. He was able to draw and execute this design with very little notice and dealt graciously with non-Japanese speaking clients. This is my third tattoo, the first two are also custom pieces which represent journeys, but this is the only one on an explicitly Buddhist theme.

When I had it done I had just completed a major Buddhist pilgrimage route in Japan - the Shikoku 88 Temple route, a 1,000 kilometer circular route around Japan's fourth largest island. Jizo is not the main focus of the pilgrimage but he is everywhere in rural Japan - at every temple, at roadside shrines, in fields and woodlands and cemeteries.  He is the guardian of travellers and has come to be associated particularly with looking afterthe souls of the dead and with children. Traditionally, many women make offerings to him to remember children they have lost through miscarriage, stillbirth  or abortion. 

His image was a constant presence on the journey and so I chose him to sum up my time in Japan, and to be a kind of personal guardian whilst I wander around.  In this interpretation he is surrounded by falling petals of cherry blossoms - another reminder of impermanence and of Japan. Jizo has treated me well - I returned to Japan in November 2006 and hope to be here another year so that I can continue to  develop my practice. I am part way through another pilgrimage route and hope to return to Shikoku in 2008.

Thanks for sending it, Jenny!