"i love my mom" and "it's a pentagram."

It started at the russian border.
Actually it started in mongolia but at the border sounds better. As soon as Julia and i got onto the train and demongolianated in the bathroom sink. We had been hoping for a shower car like the chinese train but it wasn't meant to be.
There we were sitting around minding our own business and figuring out what card games we knew and sucked at when a white fellow stuck his head in our cabin and with gleefull abandon said "White people! You speak english!" half a question mark on the last bit, we were speaking english but it could have been a trap. I do understand how he felt.
His name was Jeff he had been in asia for a fair while and was on the last leg home from his epic overland adventure. Thailand to the u.k. with no airplanes and only a few boats. Well, he taught us to play shithead and we helped keep him fed till he found a bank machine, the funny thing about mongolian Tugriks is that they aren't worth much in mongolia and less than much outside mongolia. Especially in russia...
We had a lot of time on our hands so we got to know each other pretty well, the good stories got exausted and we broke out the bad ones. Then when those ran out we played more shithead!
One thing we didn't have in common was tattoos. He assured me his mom was tougher than a nazi death camp and would kill him, me and everyone involved if he got a tattoo that said anything but "I love my mom" and that there may still be beatings involved if that is what it said.
So we laughed at the mongolian side show on the train platform everytime we stopped, and searched the russian stalls for cash machines, cigarettes, beer and vodka. Plus various foodstuffs to keep us alive, the beer was not very good but did come in 4 litre jugs.
Five days later we were sick of shithead and ready to get of the train, we hadn't seen a bottle of vodka since mongolia and the shakes were getting unbearable. Jeff had decided in order to celebrate properly we should shack up in the same hostel that night. This would make a serious vodka binge in moscow poeticly simple.

 We found our hostel, checked in and showered, which was amazing. Then we went on a mission to find a vodka purveror! It was as easy as following to blokes from the hostel on their food mission. As soon as we entered the grocery store we saw a beer section but a scan of the floor did not uncover vodka. What gives? Then we saw the escalator heading down! A whole floor beneath us!
More food, a wine section, various spirits....Around the last corner, THE VODKA SECTION of a russian supermarket!!!! It was amazing. Wall to wall and ceiling to floor, It was breathtaking. It was a problem when fifteen minutes later we hadn't made any decisions....
And then it happened, a young russian man with a very serious face on, 2 bottles of coke and a couple bags of chips in his cart marched up to THE VODKA SECTION, grabbed two bottles from the middle with a grey label named "russian standard." He put them in his cart and reached back to the shelf for two more bottles, Then two more after that, with six bottles of russian standard in his cart he stood looking slightly puzzled. He pushed the bags of chips aside and looked at the 2 bottles of coke next to the 6 bottles of vodka and then reached back to the shelf and took down one more bottle with a satisfied look that was very close to a smile but still more of a scowl.
As he walked away we looked at each other then the prices of the various other brands, russian standard? It wasn't expensive, there were cheaper for sure though. The name and the young russian moments before sealed the deal. 2 bottles of russian standard!
Now we have vodka and a freezer and food and a night to kill, Jeff asks if we want to see something cool. Of course we do! He disappears into his room and returns with a cylindical object just like the scroll we picked up for my dad in bejing...unrolls it and says "guess what it says?" with a shit eating grin.
"No idea." I don't guess well at all and told him so.
"It says.....I LOVE MY MOM! In cantonese!" He bought it in china from an old man selling his paintings on the street who also spoke perfect english.
"You should tattoo it on my forearm!"
"Can i do that in a hostel?" I ask.
"Of course you can! anything goes in these places." is his reply.
So of we go! as soon as we are set up and the design is on him we break into the vodka and almost as soon as the machine starts to buzz the room starts to fill up with people and the questions begin. whatcha doing? and other no brainers and by the time we are done the room is empty except for us. Next room however has a couple east indians in it waiting patiently and drinking beer...I don't recall exactly what was said but i do know the rest of the night involved riding a big stuffed cow and drinking vodka with russians out loose in moscow with jeff and some punk we picked up along the way, after putting a very drunk julia to bed of course. Vodka is her secret weakness.
The next morning i had a funny message on the computator.

Hey, Joe, i will be coming to the hostel, by 7. I am checkin out of the hostel, got invited to another hostel close by. So, tell me , or if possible, call me when u are back, and u are free and ready to make a tattoo. am givin u my no.

so i wrote back.
Joe Quin March 16 at 12:43pm

hello! we are on the 10 train but will be leaving here by 7 i think. if you get this we are at the hostel now come on by

Well he did and so i did. And what i did was a small red circle with a simple geometric design inside it. And inside that design i also did a goats head. all in red. if i had got to do it bigger it could have been really cool but no small was important. At one point i had to go fetch supplies and julia asked him about his choice of subject matter, the answer was deadpan "it's a pentagram." he likes pentagrams she said when i got back to work.
Then we went to the train and left moscow for st. petersburg, which is where things got a little sticky.

Arjun R Prakashey March 17 at 1:20am Report
hey joe, what do you think about the satanist symbol of tattoo?

I wasn't really thinking when i wrote this.
Joe Quin March 17 at 8:21am
yes you have a satanist symbol tattoo.

Arjun R Prakashey March 17 at 5:55pm Report
am a hindu man, does that tattoo apply to me also? cos i dont follow chirstianism, Or satanism. Now this thing really confuses me. I wonder, how i never thought about this before. What do you think? Am i a member to hell now? A really confusing question, and sorry to be disturbin you, but that evenly disturbs me.
I mean, does this tattoo really infect me as written? Am a hindu, i dont promote, much satanism or christianis, its just that i like pentagrams. :)

Arjun R Prakashey March 17 at 5:59pm Report
I just mean, all that i did, because i like pentagrams, not satanics, yes u can laugh, even i smile at this problems. but thats really confusing you know.. you are my tattoo artist, i thought you wud be the best personality to get consulted. i believe you in this case. Take care and have a happy europe tour. :)

Joe Quin March 17 at 6:36pm
dude im sorry to disturb you. it is just a pentagram and you like pentagrams so wear it with pride. do some digging into the origin of swastikas if you want an example of symbols being corrupted. i am an atheist and have a great big upside down cross tattooed on my back just to screw with the god types.
peace man, as your tattooist i say wear what you want with pride and style.
but do realize some people will judge you based on that little tattoo. i personally deal with these judments as a way to weed out people i didn't really want to know anyways.
you take care and travel safe as well
 
.Arjun R Prakashey March 18 at 7:19pm Report

yeah man taking care. i mean, this tattoo which i am really loving now!! no, am surely not removing it. i read about swastikas though just as you told. and its no disturbance man, its my questions which are disturbing though :\ yes, some people will judge me i  am prepared for that too. bujt branding with this tattoo? doesnt mean am breaking any laws yet? for religions, right? i really need you to solve me up. idk why. talking to u about this lightens me up. cos i dont wanna disturb any others religious activities. and neither do i wanna fall. so if you can answer these 2 questions. PLEASE? *am i disturbing any religion? *and even if i do, does this tattoo automatically pulls me in satanity? No i guess? cos .. i dont promote either. but neither do i wanna disturb any. so.. *Do these laws apply to me also? i really dont think so. A nice topic to talk i guess? lol. please answer man. need and advice, from the tattoo artist as experienced as my age.
 
Our next correspondence was through a chat on facebook so i don't have it in the files. I told him that all the power a symbol will ever have is only what you give it. Oh ya, and that it wasn't illegal to have a pentagram or a swastika or an upside down cross tattoo. In the end he ended up with a pentagram and i never sent him to hell.