Lewis Carroll’s tale of the little girl who got lost down the rabbit hole has been a favourite of mine since I first read it when I was 6. The idea that you can fall into a world totally weird and wonderful, topsy turvy world that is brilliant in its wacky individuality where nothing is as it seems. I love the book so much in fact that my tattoo and piercing business is called Wonderland, because I hope to turn my premises into an alternative haven, a place for people to escape from the oppressive, bleak and phobic of the different world.
But as I got older, I began to see the darker side of Alice’s adventures. And began to see that the world around me was becoming more and more like Wonderland, I was lost, confused and everyone was screaming “Off with her head!”
I know for a fact that I am not the only person totally and utterly disillusioned with this world. It sickens us. In fact we feel so baffled by it; it’s almost as if we are both Alice in Wonderland.
We wander around in a world that we try our hardest to understand. It’s a strange world, exactly like in the book, it’s easy to get lost, and the people just get “curioser and curioser”, peering down at us, scrutinizing. They watch as we walk along the University corridor, grinning like Cheshire cats, their apparent happy faces hiding cruel intentions and snap judgements, and the smell of the Caterpillar’s hookah is never too far away. We cannot understand this world, despite our best efforts. Or is it that this world cannot understand us? I believe the latter may be more likely.
One day, we’re blessed by the small victories over these minions. Whether this is through grades, physical strength, or just plain tactical vengeance and you feel like you’ve just eaten a mushroom….. But with every rise comes a fall: then comes the moment when you are sat before a woman with a degree. Who frantically scribbles your every thought and feeling before slamming her verdict and label down upon you? Then comes the moment she tries to guilt trip you by sitting you down in front of your parents and you are made to feel like everything wrong in your family’s life is your fault. Like you’ve been such an inconvenience to your family. And you shrink down to 2cm tall and really want someone to stand on you.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. We have the most fantastic Mad Hatter’s Tea Party with the weirdest and wonderful group of people and the conversation is unreal, ranging from everything to books to music and shit being cash. And you sit talking to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and it makes you smile, listening to them nag at one another….
And once every now and then, a miracle happens and you accidentally stumble through a looking glass and meet your twin flame. They understand you more than any other person in the world. They know your thoughts, your feelings, your past, your present and you’re desperate to keep them in your future.
But the problem with the future is it changes too quickly. You fall down another rabbit hole into a dark, scary place, where you’re alone and disorientated. Everything you thought was real and good in your world is turned on it’s head. And you ponder the question-
If the person who understands you most in a world of confusion and hatred can’t love you…. Who can?
So when you’re a kid and you read Alice in Wonderland and you dream of falling down a rabbit hole and finding your own wonderland, I bet, like us, you’d never dream of realizing that the real world you live in is Wonderland…..
Every time I look down at the tattoo on my right arm to see those four symbols I am thankful for the fact that I’ve been lucky. I’ve found my White Rabbit. .

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