10 Life Reminders from my Nepal Tattoo

I’ve seen the most vulnerable version of me this year, and I realized that it took everything in me to survive from silent lone battles.

I’ve seen the saddest version of me—the most wasted and devastated.

But despite that, I’ve learned that I became a better person. I also learned to forgive myself for letting myself settle for less than what I truly deserved.

I’ve learned a lot while I was hurting.

— This was my year-end realization when I was watching the sun slowly set from one of the temples in Kathmandu, Nepal. It’s weird how you remember the saddest times of your life during your happiest days.

The next day, we were bound to Nagarkot Waterfalls. While on the crowded bus scrolling mindlessly, I stumbled upon my Dentist’s Story which caught my attention. It’s a “What you did this year” checklist where you tick off all you have done in 2023. Since I have done everything except 2, I reposted it excluding tattoo and piercing.

That bus trip was long that I was reminded how I have always wanted another minimal tattoo to symbolize the crazy but breakthrough chapter in my life. But for a long time, I couldn’t decide where to get it—until that exact moment.

10:10 AM, 10 degrees cold — I showed up the following day in a top tattoo studio in Kathmandu, while my friends were still sleeping.

After 10 minutes, I already got new ink. It’s 10, but in Roman Numeral symbol.

Here are the 10 meanings behind this X tatts:

1. In Math, X represents the unknown – We are all in a lifetime journey of finding the X, a variable that varies with each of us. The sense of fulfillment comes not only from actually finding X, but understanding and mastering the process of how to find the value of X.

2. X means incorrect, or trouble – Not everything will go with our way, some goes against our way. But “what stands in the way becomes the way“. As what one of my favorite books, Obstacle is the Way, puts it: “The only guarantee, ever, is that things will go wrong.”

3. X symbolizes endings – As in things I don’t want anymore. Not all “No” are necessarily a negative. Some of my “No” this year can be a rejection of things that are harmful or I no longer want in my life: People, habits, beliefs, etc. An X can represent the end of something bad, which makes room for the beginning of something good.

4. X friends – One of my old tattoos is dedicated to my good old friends which used to be my everything. Today, although I’m still grateful for the time we spent, I realized that no matter how I insist, I need to accept that our part in each other’s life is simply over, and we are now nothing more than X friends.

5. X reminds me that I’m always wrong – Learning is an eternal iterative process. We don’t go from “wrong” to “right” once we discover the truth. Rather, we go from partially wrong to slightly less wrong, to slightly less wrong than that, to even less wrong than that, and so on. As I’d always say in my Personal Effectiveness Training, each time we correct our “wrong”, we become one step closer and closer to perfection without actually being able to reach it. We shall therefore not seek to find the ultimate “right”, but rather seek to chip away at the ways which we’re wrong today so that we’re a little less wrong tomorrow.

6. X for Experience – I believe that the purpose of life is to experience the wholeness of who you are and experience the most of what life can offer. If not for the experience, what am I here for?

7. X to drugs – In US, X tattoo in hand commonly means “no to substances” such as drugs or alcohols (straight edge culture). I have never used and will never use drugs at all in my lifetime.

8. X is shorthand symbol for a hug – I think I was a cute Koala in my past life huehue. XOXO

9. X as 10: 10,000 hours – Although it’s not literally a strict scientific law, I want to be reminded that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of hardwork to be good at something. This concept suggests that achieving expertise in a particular domain often requires around 10,000 hours of focused, deliberate practice.

10. X as 10: 10th Country in a year – The most straightforward meaning: I got this tattoo from Nepal, the 10th country I visited this year 2023 after India, Switzerland, France, Poland, USA, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Singapore.

BONUS TRACK: X (“Multiply”) is the second studio album of my favorite singer-songwriter, Ed Sheeran. Released in 2014, the songs in the album is the soundtrack of my transition from college life to professional life.
(P.S. – Just recently, I watched Ed Sheeran perform live in his concert in Mumbai, India. *teary-eyed*)

There you go…

While all my other tattoos are source of inspirations, this one humbly represents all my mistakes and failures in life, making it the most meaningful souvenir I’ve got for myself from foreign travel. What a comforting way to end the rollercoaster ride of 2023.

Even though I’ve seen the worst version of me this year, I still learned to accept and appreciate myself. This may be the most painful year for me, but this is also where I’m strongest. X