TABLE
OF CONTENTS
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Tats in Turkey
Istanbul, Turkey
By Michelle Cox
On
Thursday, I ended up randomly hanging out in Istanbul with three other
girls
who I completely hadn’t expected to join up with; but it ended up being
my favorite
day I
experienced in Turkey
during my visit. Candace,
Julie, Heather,
and I spent a good part of the day exploring Taksim Square
going in
and out of bookstores, clothing stores, and restaurants.
We all randomly discussed how we all wanted
to get a tattoo to resemble our voyage and that we were going to keep
our eyes
out for a tattoo place in Istanbul. Eventually, we ran out of things to do so we
mainly focused on finding a tattoo parlor for the rest of the afternoon.
After
about 2 hours of getting lost in the backgrounds of Taksim
Square trying to find tattoo parlors listed
on our
map, we finally ran into a man who spoke English very well. He
led us
to a
small, hole in the wall tattoo parlor off of the main road. When we first walked in, we were all very
skeptical and having second thoughts about getting the tattoos because
not one
person who worked in there spoke an ounce of English so we would have
no way of
communicating to the artists exactly what we wanted and negotiating
prices. Eventually someone in the shop
who spoke a very small amount of English told us the boss had called
his
“brother” (who actually wasn’t really his brother, just a close friend)
who
worked at the shop and spoke really good English.
His
name was Emre and he was born in England. He moved to Turkey
when he was six years old but still spoke English very clearly. Emre acted as our translator for his boss and
the tattoo artist. Originally, only
three of us were thinking of getting tattoos, but after spending a few
hours
there, we all decided to just go for it and get one to remember this
experience
we had in Turkey. Julie got a tattoo that says “look deeper” in
Burmese, “True beauty lies within” in Turkish, and “body and soul” in
Japanese
characters. Heather got “resilience” in
Turkish and Candace got the star and crescent to resemble the Turkish
flag. I on the other hand had already
had an idea in mind from before so I got a Japanese cherry blossom
branch with
Burmese writing that says “One sweet world” (one of my favorite songs
by Dave
Matthews Band) and then a really small star and crescent.
I wanted my tattoo to represent my three
favorite countries visited during the voyage.
 We spent a good
six hours in the shop, not only getting
our tattoos but just hanging out and having a good time with Emre, the
owner of
the shop and a few of their friends. In
our conversations, we talked about the owner’s family and learned he
has a
two-year
old daughter at home. We also found out
that the shop is open from 9 a.m.
until 12 a.m. and the owner
usually
comes in early in the morning before he opens the shop to mop the
floors and
clean everything himself. I thought
about the article “Bridge between Europe and Asia”
by Jenny B. White when she talks about how there is such minimal space
for land
ownership and the rent is outrageous in even undesirable parts of
Istanbul. This man owns this tattoo shop
that is tucked
way in the back of a covered alley way with nothing but a 12”x12” sign
to
indicate its existence. I just wonder
how he manages to keep the shop open with little awareness of the shop,
small
amounts of business and still having to pay an insane amount of rent,
I’m
sure. For a 28 year old man supporting
his family, working long hours, that is quite admirable.
After
a few hours
of sitting in the shop chatting, the owner of the shop bought us all
dinner to
keep us around for a while longer. During
dinner, the owner told Emre to tell us that it was
one of his two
favorite days he has had since he opened the shop and Emre agreed. Apparently, their other favorite day was when
eleven American soldiers came in to get tattoos and hung out with them
the rest
of the day. It may have been because
they make a lot of money off of Americans when they come in with groups
of
people, but I honestly think it was because they enjoyed our company. They didn’t have to buy us dinner or tell us
it was one of their best days working in the shop.
When
we were getting ready to leave and go back to the ship, they invited us
back
the next night to hang out with them one last time and maybe go out for
a few
drinks. I ended up having plans with my
other friends, but the other three girls did go back and have a few
drinks with
them and said goodbye. I regret not
saying goodbye to them,
but I have their email address so I can keep in touch
and send a hello when I get home.
I
feel really lucky that we fell into this hole in the wall shop and met
these
incredibly funny and friendly people. This
experience
made what was already one of my favorite countries that much better. I thought it was really nice
that we had a chance to talk to and relate to people close to our age
from
another country and it was my first genuine experience with locals in
any
country. And now I have something
permanent on my body so I will never forget this night in Turkey!
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