NY, NY - I'm not Cleopatra, however I've always had a little thing for her...and anyone else from Ancient Egypt like the Sun God Ra, King Tut and Nefertiti and Ramses to name a few.My love for everything-Egypt doesn't stop there, of course. I'm in LOVE with "artifacts" as well...for example
1) papyrus paper - I got my first "real" piece of papyrus from a store when I was in 5th grade - papyrus is a thin paper-like material made from the pith of a papyrus plant that ancient Egyptians used to write on
2) Hieroglyphics - I love this alphabet of amazing characters that can be used as letters or in some cases a Hieroglyphic will stand for an entire word. Its very cool.
3) Scarabs! These are actually beetles but Ancient Egyptians would create ornate figurines of Scarabs using colorful jewels and they would walk around with these Scarabs as amulets around their neck. Also, the dead were buried with their Scarab amulets (and everything else).
On May 1st of 2010, my dad took me and my sister and mother to see an Ancient Egyptian exhibit in the heart of Times Square. The tickets promised the view of a "real mummy" - but I don't actually think there was one. Either way I still remember the look of the ancient jewels, gold and pottery in the cases...it was amazing, beautiful, and left an image in my mind of a scarab that I've never been able to shake.
Anyway, of course what happened that day is Faisal Shahzad stuck a bomb in one of the trash cans around the block from the exhibit I was at with my family. Thank God the bomb did not go off and it was diffused by police immediately, Shahzad was arrested and is in prison. I still tell my story of the two suspicious men parked that day in front of the Ann Taylor in Times Square - so suspicious that BEFORE I knew anything about Shahzad and his evil plan I said to my mom "these guys are up to no good."
Anyway, while Faisal Shahzad was planting a bomb in Times Square there were hundreds of people enjoying a beautiful morning in NYC learning about Ancient Egypt up close - first hand. And I COULD NOT get the image of the Scarab out of my head.As unbelievable as it is, I finally got a tattoo of a scarab 5 years nearly TO THE DAY after first falling in love with this marvelous jewel. I consider the scarab to be the most beautiful of all the Ancient Egyptian jewel designs and I'm proud to wear one on my wrist permanently. Thanks to Sam at Inkpulsive!
