I never wanted a tattoo.
I loved admiring artwork on my friends’ bodies, but I never thought a tattoo would look good on me or fit my overall aesthetic.
When I first came across Jenna’s work, I knew immediately that I would receive a tattoo from her — whether I wanted it or not. It was just a matter of time and calling.
Tattoos — markings on the bodies, talismans — are reminders that help, strength, and wisdom from the spirit realm is always close by. Tattoos were often gifted in rites of passage ceremonies, used as protection, honored for strength.
Jenna gifts tattoos in a ritual in Oaxaca, just as our ancestors did.
When I first reached out to Jenna, she didn’t ask me what tattoo I wanted. She asked me what my intentions were.
I wrote paragraphs to her about the intention behind the tattoo I wanted and where I energetically wanted it on my body. From these intentions, she created a ceremony and intuitively drew what wanted to come out of her onto my body.
The Broken Arrow is a totem I started receiving months ago in visions, dreams, meditations, and card pulls.
In Native American & Toltec traditions, The Broken Arrow shows up as a sign of peace and safety. It’s a symbol that reminds you to put your weapons down.
I experienced a history of abuse in childhood - sexual, physical, and emotional. Seeing my current therapist for about 5 years now, I’ve been in a long term process of acknowledging these wounds, letting them breathe, and integrating safety back into my being.
Feeling safe is a big lesson for me in this lifetime. Because of how these traumas have imprinted on my psyche and in my body, I have a difficult time trusting that I am safe as an adult. Even when I am in the safest situations surrounded by those who love & care for me deeply, I have a habit of putting a guard up to protect myself.
This guard comes out as anger, mostly. I sob. I melt into a breakdown. I defend myself when I don’t need to. I push Love and tenderness away because I don’t trust anyone around me.
The Broken Arrow comforts me with “it’s okay.” The Broken Arrow reminds me and my inner child that we are safe. It reminds me that I can put my weapons down because as long as I am surrounded by and rooted in Love, there is nothing to fear. There is no need to fight.
This totem appeared to assure me that peace is around me and around anything that I want to bring forth into this world.
When I arrived to Jenna’s ritual space, she invited me to sit with the altar and to add any of my own sacred items to it. The sketch of the tattoo was placed in the center.
She cleansed the space with sacred smoke. She cleansed me. We sat and breathed with the altar. We honored my intentions, Mother Earth, Father Sky, the 4 elements, the 4 directions, and all who held the ancient practice of marking sacred talismans on the body for many generations.
Jenna asked me to pull a card from the altar, but not to turn it over. She said that we’d turn the card over after we finished our work. Then, she began to mark my skin.
Jenna tattooed the talisman of The Broken Arrow around my first Kambo mark. Kambo is a frog medicine that resets your body - physically, energetically, and spiritually. When you’re given Kambo, a part of your skin is burned off for the medicine to be applied directly to your bloodstream. This burn stays on you as a mark for years.
The first time I received a Kambo treatment was the first time I traveled to the Amazon Rainforest to drink Ayahuasca in 2021. At this point, I had already embarked on my own healing journey with mushrooms and felt extremely called to begin a shamanic relationship with their medicine. The medicinal practices I engaged with in the Rainforest only confirmed this to be true.
After ceremony, I spoke to the Kambo shaman I sat with. I explained to him the visions I experienced when taking mushrooms, in my meditations, and in my dreams. He interpreted these experiences as my ancestors calling me and asking me to reopen our lineage of working with the medicine of the sacred mushroom.
Kambo played a big role in unlocking my medicine path which has played a big role in my healing journey holistically.
I feel honored to wear the totem of The Broken Arrow around my first Kambo mark. It feels ancestral to me — like this talisman is purely an extension of me, an extension of my ancestors, an extension of our journey holistically.
As I recognize our journey holistically, I’m able to see just how important my individual path is.
When the tattoo was finished, we flipped over the card I pulled. Of course, it was the card of the snake — my spirit animal and life totem. But this was no ordinary snake. This was the Australian carpet snake, which carries the message of finding safety in the home you create inside of yourself.
I feel that strength, wisdom, and guidance from the spiritual realm is on my shoulder. I feel it as a part of my being.
I transform from a drop in the ocean to the ocean in a drop.
The Universe is saying "Put your weapons down. You are safe. There is no need to fight. You are protected by Peace and by The Spirit of Love."
The Universe is saying this through my very existence. With this tattoo, the mark of this talisman, the Universe speaks through my body.
I couldn’t be more blessed than I am today … until tomorrow and the next one. :)
Loved the meaning, your openness, and how the tattoo turned out.
I'm always amazed by how little I know of traditions and rituals that give meaning to actions that others see as mundane, such as getting a tattoo.
I've been on and off the idea of getting a tattoo for about four years, but I would be lying if said I am super close to getting a ticket there and getting one.