She’s the darkness most of us fear

As I neared my 40th birthday earlier this year, I wanted to mark the occasion and get another tattoo.

I really wanted this one to mean something, unlike the ink I got when I was 17 and 21.

My first 40 years of life have been pretty incredible and full of experiences both amazing and disturbing, but all of them leading to transformation, growth, transmutation.

I love the mythology of the Phoenix burning and being reborn, transformed – which is why I called my first biz Phoenix Transformation.

I also love the story behind the Hindu Goddess Kali – she has a really bad rap as “the purveyor of destruction”, but what she really does is show people their shadow shit to be transmuted.

“She’s the darkness most of us fear. She is fierce. She is loving. She will transform you”.

I knew I wanted both in my art work, but I didn’t want a Phoenix or Kali tattoo.

I also knew I wanted the piece to represent energy work, healing, different dimensions and sacred geometry.

I wanted the Reiki palm master symbol in it too, signifying healing hands.

I’d collected various images that had a bit of the vibe I was going for but I knew I needed someone amazing to design it, piecing all the things I wanted together.

So I’m sat in a cafe overlooking the ocean with my bestie Christie, explaining this all to her.

She said there was a post she saw on Facebook years ago by someone who does these designs and she didn’t know who it was or where she saw the post but a quick search and she found her… the amazing Gemma Sykes!

Gemma took me through a sacred marking video call where I did a brain dump of all my ideas and she got to know a bit about who I am.

She then designed the piece and came back to me with it for review before inking it, and we finished off with a beautiful sacred marking activation session together.

You can find Gemma and her awesome work here or see her packages here.

Gemma is a total legend and she recommended a very special tattooist at Main Street Tattoo called Anais.

As I looked through her work I noticed her own design style was very similar to Gemma’s, absolutely inkredible work with fine detail which was exactly what I was after.

Friday was the day I got inked, and I’m so totally in love with it!!

You can find the amazing Anais here.

This artwork is a symbol of my 40 years of life, of transformation, and also a representation of how I’ve spent the last 20 years of my life also helping others to transmute their own shadow shit.

Can’t wipe the smile off my face as this is such a significant time in my life, I really do feel like the Phoenix reborn where all my hard work has finally slotted into place.