When we visited Maui 10 years ago we were fortunate enough to discover the secluded and prized Red Sand Beach in Hana. Arley and I took a trip out to Hana and had to venture back to it! It is most definitely the most beautiful beach I have EVER seen. It is a treacherous hike down over 100 feet of stone, dust and lava gravel pathway . One must be fit and courageous to even attempt the feat!
In the waters we saw 15 plus tropical fish in the Kahaone'ula cove while adorned with our top notch speedo goggles! On this day, the waters were calm enough to venture out beyond the lava rocks that separate the calm waters from the rough waters, towards the open ocean.
There are always interesting folks to meet on this beach! Today there was a guy, about 30 years old, who had a tattoo on each shoulder. One tattoo was of a peace sign and the other of an anarchy sign while on his chest he had the word DESTINY written backwards. Arley and I contemplated over why he was tattooed with these symbols and the word. I thought it was something worldly like one could choose peace over unrest and the word destiny written backwards was more about the fact that we all have a choice and our destiny is preceded by the choices that we make as we move through life.
After questioning Nick for a while, we found out that his choice for his tattoo was meaningful but not quite what I had conjoured up in my mind. Nick had joined the Marines and after a short stint had wanted out. Tattoos are not allowed in the Marines so he thought he would get some controversial tattoos in the hopes that he would get kicked out. That didn't work so he started failing drug tests. That didn't work either so he committed fraud. That didn't work, so he picked a fight with a fellow marine and finally 6 months before he was to be discharged the Marines became aware of all of his infractions and he was finally kicked out!
It turned out that the DESTINY written backwards tattoo was one he had chosen in high school because he noticed while he was making the choices he wanted to make in high school, others were making choices because they thought it was was "cool." He wanted to remember that he always had a choice.
This photo was taken in one shot with only 3 shots left on our throw away camera by: Arley Donovan
Location: Red Sand Beach Hana Maui HI
I love the story. Soooo Maui! I hope you also let him know your interpretation of the tattoos.
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