I think most people like to collect souvenirs from the places they visit. Some people collect magnets, others collect baseball hats, and some use passport stamps. As I don’t need or want more clutter in my house or to have to scour for booklets of paper every time I want to be reminded of my journeys, I’ve decided to get souvenir tattoos. Every time I visit a new place, I get a tattoo significant in some way to that place. For example, when I went to Japan five years ago, I got a tattoo of a geisha girl. When I went to Greece three years ago I got a tattoo of a cup of coffee and inside was the Greek flag. On one holiday I also found the most recommended traditional tattooist in my area. I like to keep the tattoos smart rather than allowing my body to become a picture book of a whole heap of overly simplistic and boring tattoos. That’s not to say I don’t have any of those but because there’s only a few of them, they’re actually a bit amusing.
I tend to get these tattoos in major cities or countries. There’s no rhyme or reason that decides what kind of location will get tattooed and what kind of picture it will be, but that’s why it’s so fun. Sometimes the tattoos are really significant, such as the Statue of Liberty but other times I like to get silly things, like a beer and sausage to signify my trip to Germany. My most recent tattoo is from my trip to Brisbane. Sometimes it can be hard to find a good tattooist. Brisbane is considered a bit of a holiday destination so I managed to find one who could quickly bang out a little tattoo for me. I didn’t want anything too intricate so I just got a small pair of sunglasses tattooed on my chest with Brisbane in the shades.