Tattoos of a Destiny

There is a tattoo on Felipe Nunes’s arm. But some marks happen without our choosing them. Losing one’s legs must be among the hardest.

My grandfather used to tell me that after my great-grandmother had a leg amputated because of diabetes, she said for years that she could still feel the missing leg. A part of her had ceased to exist and yet remained inscribed in everyday life. There is a connection between tattoos and certain marks that life leaves on us.

I am not interested in placing Felipe in the role of a hero, nor in reducing his story to his physical condition. I see an athlete competing, training, and developing his own language.

Felipe won the Street competition. It is clear that, technically, he is operating at a higher level, without diminishing anyone else. After each run, however, he would advise his fellow competitors, pull one of them closer, guide his movements, then touch another’s muscle to help him activate the right part at the right moment for certain tricks.

Knowledge did not remain with the person who had acquired it first. In this way, Felipe turns experience into a tool for someone else.

The tattoo ceases to be an image. The mark deliberately placed on the skin meets another, harsher one, made by life. One is drawn; the other happens. Both become part of the person who carries them, for life.

There is also a third, less visible inscription: the one a person leaves in another’s experience by sharing what they know. Perhaps it is the most interesting of all: it extends beyond the person who creates it.

Felipe won and kept teaching. Perhaps the greater championship is this: reaching a place and making sure that what was learned along the way finds someone else to carry it forward.