This is my first tattoo done by Thomas Blomquist at Stuck Tattoo in Kungsholmen Stockholm. He is a friend of a friend that I met last year, and after meeting him I knew that I wanted him to give me my first tattoo as soon as I turned 18. I think he did an amazing job.
The tattoo is so so special to me, and it signifies a lot. It is my eye inside of a lotus mandala. My eye - symbolic of awakening, the evil eye (a protectorate), and more so my eye within the mandala is symbolic of my place within the cosmos, and its dwelling within me, thus explaining the mandala somewhat. Also, accidentally, there is a reflection of a window in this, so that too adds to the awakening element - the window to my soul even.
I wanted a lotus mandala specifically because they often symbolise spiritual awakening - the are the most pure and perfect flowers, and they stem out of dirty, unclean water. They are something beautiful that derives from mess. The eight petals also resemble the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path - Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.
Ah, I love it!