pinksiddy

it was middle of january 2023. i was living in downtown toronto with a pretty good job, but i wasn’t happy. i hadn’t been happy in a very long time.

i remembered that taking a sabbatical was something that had been at the back of my mind for a few years, and at that moment i decided that i was finally going to do it. i would use the time to travel, meet new people, explore new cultures, and get plenty of tattoos.

fast forward a couple of weeks, i told my manager that i wanted to take a year off. she was quite supportive, surprisingly, and made sure that my time off got approved. i think she could see that i was struggling.

right before my sabbatical was supposed to start, in june 2023, one fine evening i was admiring my tattoos (i have 50+ small tattoos) and a thought occurred to me: “i can probably draw silly stuff!”. at that moment, my only drawing that i remember from my childhood, which my aunt very nicely hung in the shower for everyone to look at for decades after, came to mind. and i started drawing.

i think i probably drew over 20 different doodles then. and then it came to me: i finally found a way to communicate my feelings to the world!

coupled with the joy that i could draw (or at least that’s how i saw it) was the fact that i could then probably learn how to tattoo! ever since a life-changing event in 2022, i had found refuge in tattoos and the company of tattoo artists. i had finally found something that i really wanted to pursue, something that could help me communicate with the world through different platforms, something where i could do what i like best: connecting with people.

since i started my sabbatical in june 2023, i have been on a journey to various parts of the world, connecting with people and getting tattoos. in the last few months, i have already visited montreal, detroit, mexico city, san fransisco, paris, amsterdam, delhi, bombay, pune, kasol, and cairo. i have also recently started tattooing and hope to start travelling and tattooing soon (of course conditional people actually wanting my tattoos!).

i want to use this platform to write stories about my travels, my art, my inspirations, my interactions with amazing human beings everyday. i hope you follow along.