Most people have it as a treat on the plate with a slice of lemon or it swims around in the pond, but Barry from Dongen has had his favorite animal immortalized in ink on his arm. “These fish are so beautiful, I can stare at them endlessly.”
The first tattoo came when he was 18. “That was the age when my parents had no say in the matter anymore,” he jokes. The decision was made quickly. Barry* spontaneously chose a lion’s head – “because I just thought it was beautiful” – went into a tattoo shop, lay down and a few hours later the king of the savannah was on his body.
How different things went with his second tattoo. Laughing: “I’ve thought about that extensively, for over thirty years to be precise. No, I didn’t make a decision overnight. It had to be something that gives me joy, that I have a passion for, and also something with emotional value.”
At 49, Barry was out. He knew immediately that it was a golden inspiration, his enthusiasm shot from babbling brook to blazing fire. “I chose a koi carp, with my children’s fingerprints incorporated into it. That brought everything together.”
“I could stare at the bowl of cookies endlessly.”
The koi, the symbol of Japan, the fish that floats so calmly through the water, orange with a hint of salmon pink, its beak forming lazy ooo’s as it gasps for oxygen. Barry can’t get enough of it. “When I come home from work after a hectic day, I step into the backyard and sit by the pond. Then I just look at those fish and feel myself completely calm. I get the same effect when I cast a fishing line at a nearby puddle.”
Watching fish is a way to clear his head, and the fascination started early. “As a boy I had goldfish, and I could also stare at the bowl of cake endlessly. When I moved in together, a large pond had to be dug in the garden immediately.”
“I’ve had my favorite fish for seventeen years.”
The small goldfish was exchanged for the large koi carp. Some grow to be seventy to eighty centimeters tall and can live to be quite old. “I have had my favorite fish for seventeen years, but they can live up to forty. It is not a colorful eye-catcher, but just gray. A beautiful creature.”
According to Barry, the carp also recognize him. “When I walk past to the shed, they immediately swim to the surface, because then they know they are getting food. A koi quickly becomes tame and even eats from your hand.”
25 beautiful specimens swim around in his pond. Yet it takes little effort for him to get rid of some fish every now and then. Then he’s tired of it and it’s time for new ones. “There is no such thing as secretly dumping them in the ditch. The carp have to end up in a good place. I have already taken quite a few to a restaurant where there is a large aquarium. My son and I still go by every now and then to watch them swim around.”
That tattoo turned out exactly as Barry hoped. “But it really hurt,” he says. The forearm is apparently quite sensitive to have a tattoo. Well, I knew that.”
*For privacy reasons we are not mentioning Barry’s last name.