Becoming’s Triad

Narrative by Mariane Cara, Posted January 28, 2026

Image courtesy of the author. Photo credit: Elisa Almeida

Semioticians analyze symbols, so for this series, we’ve asked 25 of our semio colleagues from around the world to explicate the symbolism of… one of their own tattoos.

Marking the body with a symbol isn’t easy, especially after 40, when life already feels like a structure you’ve spent years building. For me, a tattoo was never going to be impulsive. It took time, thinking and rethinking, circling back again and again… always with that quiet doubt that the idea might look different once it became part of my being.

Skin has its own way of interpreting us.

After I decided, I didn’t pick an image from a catalog. I chose to create my own drawing. Even if imperfect, it would still be mine: a personal language etched into the body. I designed it as one continuous line holding three intertwined representations, which I called my “becoming’s triad.”

First sign: motherhood, the beginning. Nothing is more important to me than being the mother of two incredible girls. So the line starts with their initials, E and S (Elisa and Sofia), woven into an infinity shape, because they are exactly this: the infinity of my being and the love that keeps unfolding no matter what.

From that core, the line moves into the second sign: foliage. Those leaves are my shorthand for life as a semiotician — new projects sprouting like new leaves, day after day, in that restless process of meaning-making, transforming, multiplying. Meaning, I’ve learned over the years, isn’t a fixed statement; it’s a garden you keep tending.

Finally, above that greenery, there’s the third sign: a bird with open wings. It’s a hybrid, half phoenix, half peacock. It reads as transformation like a phoenix, rising from ashes to life, representing reinvention and freedom. But it also remembers the peacock’s lesson: showing your plumage can be courage, not vanity.

Another important decision was the placement of the tattoo. I chose my left arm, which has been an important point in my life’s journey. When I was six, I fell off my bicycle because I was outrageous enough to ride in circles in a tiny area instead of following the street’s line. I broke my left arm badly and spent more than five months in a cast, the only girl in class with one, covered in my friends’ scribbles. That arm became my first chaotic page.

So, more than 40 years later, tattooing the same left arm with my becoming’s triad felt like continuing the same story. Another layer written on the same place.

Only now, it won’t be erased. Not until the skin turns into ashes again.

Tags: Tattoo You

Work with Us

Our Insights

Topic

Type

Tags

Becoming’s Triad