So, what’s wrong with a sangoma having tattoos?

It’s approximately 9.48pm on Monday March 6 and I’m putting the final touches to my newest tattoo. It’s my fifth tattoo.

Tattoos are contentious in my spiritual home. UMathiyane has denounced having them as “devil worshipping”. I laugh it off because what does that even mean?

It hasn’t stopped me from considering the spiritual implications of having tattooed skin. Do tattoos have an underlying spiritual disposition or is this just a myth? I want to lay out what Mathiyane said to me about tattoos but first let me give some context.

At some point in the middle of my training to be a sangoma I remember making the bold decision to get a new tattoo. I was still a thwasa (initiate).

I probably shouldn’t have got inked up amid my spiritual journey. It was an act of rebellion. I was simply tired of living my life according to the instruction manual imposed by a gobela and her dlozi. I felt subjugated and desperately needed to reclaim my voice and autonomy. So, I threw middle fingers in the air and lived my best life. Retrospectively I probably shouldn’t have done that. Then again, YOLO (you only live once).

I remember that when returned to my spiritual home I wasn’t anxious or nervous that I had broken the rules. I really didn’t care. My gobela welcomed me and didn’t say anything even though she knew I had got another tattoo against her wishes and advice.

As a young feminist I was uncompromising about my “ body choice”, thought patterns and trajectory. Also, I didn’t think my feminism and ubungoma had to be at odds .

On arrival, Mathiyane asked that I accompany her to see another sangoma in her area called Mandlovu. Mandlovu had a terrible bedside manner, if I can put it that way. At Mandlovu’s house I knelt in front of her and said: “Camagu Ndlovukazi”. She glanced at me and redirected her gaze to Mathiyane and said “Mathiyane, ndincede utshise ezitattoo zikulomntana”, which loosely translated as needing to have the demonic spirits associated with tattoos cleansed from my person.

I looked at her, got up and sat on my grass mat. I remember rolling my eyes and being incredibly irritated with Mandlovu’s remarks, especially because I didn’t know her that well. I recall thinking: “Yohhh, uyaphapha loAunty, shame” but also sitting quietly because a part of me felt a bit concerned.

We left Mandlovu’s house shortly after that, making casual conversation. 

The following morning Mathiyane took me and another thwasa to the river for cleansing. It wasn’t a hectic cleansing for me but I remember the other thwasa being quite inebriated and screaming as intelezi ebomvu contacted her skin. It was a little funny, not because of her agony but because it was 9am and baby girl was sloshed.

We prayed, cried and poured our hearts out, as one should at a river cleansing. Later that evening Mathiyane asked me why I had decided to get another tattoo despite her advice. Before I could answer she said something to the effect that tattoos bleed and that we discard that blood at the artist’s place. She then explained that I could not go around leaving parts of my essence, in the form of my blood, in random places, especially given my vulnerability as a thwasa.

I think what she said is heavily connected to the current social phenomenon of people getting paid to collect used sanitary towels. Blood seems to be the prized possession in fulfilment of some weird and incredibly dark magic.

She told me she could never dictate what I do with my body and person but must advise me on timing. It was not that getting a tattoo was bad, it was the timing that was all wrong. I accepted that.

Mathiyane then denounced Mandlovu’s utterances as nothing to pay mind to. She told me that some sangomas lack tact and decency when addressing initiates. She explained that I was not the problem but rather that the real problem was Mandlovu’s upbringing. I accepted that. I suppose she did not want me to walk away with hurt feelings or feeling that I had been attacked.

I remember being grateful for having such a progressive healer who could go out of her way to meet me on my level with the common goal of initiating my ancestors. What a force of a woman.