Appropriate memorial tattoo or cultural appropriation?

October 4, 2016 10:32 AM

My kitty Ganesh passed away a few months ago and I'd like to memorialize him with a tattoo. As he was named after the Hindu god (as a kitten he was our little "destroyer of obstacles") I always assumed that I'd get a little Ganesh tattoo with maybe some kind of cat reference embedded in it. But I'm a white american atheist lady with no claim on Hindu culture. Could such a tattoo ever be appropriate on me, or is it just cultural appropriation and I should avoid it?

For his predecessor, Lukas, I got his polydactyl paw print tattooed on my inner forearm. I don't have a paw print for Ganesh, and I want something more artful than another paw print, but not a portait of him either. I'm open to suggestions of other ways to memorialize him without crossing the cultural line, too.

posted by cabingirl to Society & Culture (10 answers total)

There is a lovely story about Ganesh and a cat that you could possibly use as your inspiration if you choose to do it.

My cats both have (had) Hindu names - Daeva is still with me, but Daksha passed three years ago this coming February. After his death, I also wanted a tattoo, but I couldn't come up with anything that held all the things I needed it to hold about him. I ended up going with his name tattooed in white ink (he was white) on my inner arm. For me, that was enough.

I hope whatever you land on is enough to hold all you need it to hold.
posted by Medieval Maven at 10:55 AM on October 4, 2016

Not able to speak as to if Ganesh would be appropriate or not, but a friend of mine recently had a kitty memorial tattoo done and she ended up with his name and an image of one of his favorite toys, a little plastic dinosaur that he would carry around and leave in her shoes. I know lots of cats have favorite toys, so that might be an option for you too. So sorry about little Ganesh!
posted by theweasel at 11:03 AM on October 4, 2016

I'm sorry for the loss of your kitty. Your instinct is correct in that it is cultural appropriation and not cool to get a tattoo of another culture's deity. Maybe a tattoo of the kitty's toy, or his eyes, or a specific shaped marking, or a cartoon of his tail or ears poking out from behind something he knocked over?
posted by pseudostrabismus at 11:26 AM on October 4, 2016

In general: if you're on the fence about a tattoo, don't get it.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:15 PM on October 4, 2016

Maybe a generic elephant?
posted by brujita at 12:57 PM on October 4, 2016

If it were going to be in a generally hidden place, then I'd say go for it. In my mind, "private" tattoos like that are personal to the wearer, and nobody's business except the wearer (and the people she chooses to show it to).

On the forearm though... yeah, you're going to get side eyed (as would anyone, even a Hindu, who presented as a white American).

I like the idea of a generic elephant - maybe one playing with a kitty?

I also think that Ganesh had really beautiful eyes, and a tattoo of either his left or right eye from the photo link you provided would look beautiful.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:16 PM on October 4, 2016

Perhaps a cat sitting on an elephant's trunk would be a good memorialization? I found this pic. I could see a good tattoo artist finding his/her own design with this.

Some others that I thought were cute:
cat on an elephant
Cartoonish version of cat on an elephant
another design of cat on an elephant
posted by vivzan at 1:42 PM on October 4, 2016

Raised by a hindu parent, but not hindu. I think it would be weird. Imagine that a believer saw your tattoo, and thought you had something in common, and remarked on it. Then you'd have to explain that you had named your cat after their god. Yikes.
posted by pizzazz at 4:32 PM on October 4, 2016

Frankly, as someone who was raised Hindu but is personally an atheist, these sorts of questions about appropriation of religious imagery are going to be tough to get any consensus on. If you ask (usually) young secular people if something referencing their religion/culture is offensive for a non-member to use, they'll generally say no, have fun with it. If you ask (generally) older people, who may be more religious or have come from the first immigrant wave to the west, they'll possibly say it's offensive or appropriative - for those cultural and historical reasons that the more recent or second-gen immigrants never experienced. Religious and cultural signifiers mean something very different to people of different generations and backgrounds even within a single cultural label.

As an example, if you asked me if it was okay to wear a sari for a fancy dress party, I'd say, sure, why not, make sure it's pinned well. But in the late 70s, my mother was told during job interviews that she would not be hired for a customer-facing job in the US if she insisted on wearing her "ethnic clothing". I never had that kind of experience, so the "right to wear a sari" doesn't have the same meaning to me that it does to her.

So with this sort of question, you're never going to get a true consensus, but some people will indeed assume you are Hindu and/or will be offended, as someone else suggested above. But you can't please everyone, and your tattoo idea isn't blatantly offensive or anything. Your kitty was beautiful and clearly much-loved.
posted by vetala at 6:03 PM on October 4, 2016

Thanks everyone for your perspective.

Ultimately though I think Medieval Maven has it right when suggesting I think about what I need to tattoo to hold. I want it to convey his specialness not just his name. A portrait of Ganesha out of a flash book isn't it for a number of reasons.

I like the idea of the cat in the elephant's trunk, I bet my artist could come up with something that hints enough at the deity to have meaning to me without feeling like I'm wearing someone else's heritage on my arm. Ganesh kitty's favorite toys were bottle caps and pipe cleaners, it might be nice to sneak a bottle cap in there.
posted by cabingirl at 6:22 PM on October 4, 2016