Solvitur ambulando
"It is solved by walking." - Diogenes (attributed)
One thing is for sure: if you finally decide to get a tattoo… you will almost certainly decide to get another one. And maybe another. That’s what happened to me and to most of the tattooed people I know.
This was my first tattoo. I was 47 years old and in Amsterdam, doing research for To Die Beautiful/The Girl with the Red Hair. Amsterdam is definitely one of those cities where tourists decide to get tattoos, so I sort of already had the idea in the back of my mind. But, like most people in the “I’m considering a tattoo” phase (mine lasted decades), I was stuck on the question of what the hell I’d feel OK about getting carved into my skin forever.
On that research trip I found a lot of great primary documents. I searched through the archives of NIOD, the Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies in central Amsterdam. I also traveled to the National Archives of the Netherlands, in The Hague. While sifting through hundreds of pages of diaries, notes, interviews, and even an 80-year-old Nazi passport stamped with a swastika (they wouldn’t let me take a photo of it), I kept seeing one small symbol: V.
This was the symbol of the “V for Victory” campaign that began in the UK during the war and quickly spread across the European continent. Mostly, it spread via graffiti.
So I found a tattooist in Amsterdam and made an appointment. He was Italian. When I started to explain what the V should look like and why I wanted it, he suddenly smiled and said, “Ahh… partigiani!” That’s what they called the antifascist resistance in Italy (and as far as I know, still do). I TOOK IT AS A GOOD OMEN!
A half hour later, I had my V (and a glass of chilled white wine). I loved my tattoo — still do! — and whatever fear of commitment I had about tattoos in general was obliterated.
So now I’m considering a new one. I like tattoos with letters and words, so I’ve been thinking about a meaningful word or phrase to use. And the one that keeps coming back to me is a Latin saying I’ve loved for… decades?
Solvitur ambulando: It is solved by walking.
It’s a phrase attributed, variously, to Diogenes, Zeno, St. Augustine, and others, and has been cited by Alexander Pushkin, Bruce Chatwin, Lewis Carroll, and many others. What I love about it is that the advice is both mysterious and practical. In my life, when going through trying times, I’ve always found the act of walking helps me cope with stress and sadness. It’s also helpful when I’m stuck, intellectually, especially when I’m writing and come to a dead spot and need a solution to a plot or character problem. I put on my shoes, go for a walk, and somehow my imagination is relaxed and released.
But the other thing I love about “Solvitur ambulando” is the “it.” “It” is solved by walking… whatever “it” is! I’ve found that this is almost always true. Walking falls into that rare category of Things You Rarely Regret (along with swimming, puppies, and a cold glass of lemonade). I also love that walking is so accessible, for most of us. It doesn’t require money or advance planning or even good weather (I love a walk in a snowstorm).
I think I’m getting closer to this Solvitur ambulando tattoo becoming a reality. Now the difficult part: where on my body to put it?
And one last thing:
xo Buzzy