Allon @allonbarsam from London is a former client who returned to me for a second piece (swipe for ink). He wrote:⁠
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“My Grandparents are camp survivors and my late Grandmother had numbers tattooed on her arm. I’ve found my first Hebrew tattoo to be a wonderful expression of modern Jewish freedom and a posthumous victory over the nazis who sought to dehumanize my ancestors through tattooing that was not chosen by them.⁠
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“For my next tattoo I would like to ask you to design something with the word Hineni. I am an eye surgeon with a working wife and 4 kids and learning to be ‘present’ and mindful when away from work has been a huge challenge in such a busy life. I have slowly come to terms with this over the last few years. I meditate, do yoga and also read about Buddhism. To me this word bridges the gap between the meditative eastern religions and Judaism and I interpret it as meaning ‘spiritually present’- something which for me is a great and constant aspiration. I know it was used during the akedah story (the binding of Isaac), the burning bush, and when Joseph left his father as well as other occasions, but always there is a powerful reason when it is used.⁠
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“The kabbalists conceive of Torah script to be black fire on white fire and I like the distinction between clean black lines and my skin for this Hebrew Tattoo.”⁠
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David told Allon: “I like your way of seeing the black ink on your white skin as a representation of the black fire and white fire. The origin of this idea is much older than Kabbalah and comes from the Talmud:⁠
"The Torah which the Holy One, Praise to Him, gave to Moses, was white fire engraved in black fire. It was fire mixed with fire; hewn from fire, given from fire: That is what is written: From His right hand, the fiery law to them."⁠
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I felt that Allon was spot on with his idea of that presence being a bridge between the eastern religions and Judaism, and that it connects another school of thought: Jewish mysticism (as opposed to the scholastic/rabbinical side of Judaism). And that is where I personally connected to this project.⁠