The Ink Link: Dewald Niemandt talks about his first…

The Ink Link is an ongoing project at CN&CO that showcases the diversity of tattoos.

One of the great things about a tattoo is that it goes against the commonly held viewpoint that “what you see is what you get”. There’s a misguided belief in certain quarters that only “some” people get a tattoo. We are putting paid to that perception through the stories showcased in the Ink Link.

If you or anyone you know would like to be featured, please get in contact with us.

In this edition of The Ink Link, Carel speaks to his dominee, Dewald Niemandt, who recently completed both the Otter Trail Run and the CN&CO Charity Fun Run.

Dewald has one tattoo, an outline of the African continent on his shoulder.

“But it’s not just a tattoo,” he says, “it’s a story inked into my skin.”

He got the tattoo while he was studying at Tuks.

“It was a moment – a season – when life was loud and beautiful and complicated,” he says. “I was just starting to think that I had life figured out. (I have since completely abandoned this fallacy!) Somewhere in the middle of that, as an act of rebellion without a cause, I found myself in a tattoo studio, making a statement to the universe.”

Dewald describes a tattoo in terms of what French philosopher Pierre Nora calls a lieu de mémoire – a place of memory, something tangible that carries the weight of a moment, a story or a truth you don’t want to forget.

“So for me, a tattoo is a marker, a reminder of where you’ve been, what you’ve endured, and the beauty of what’s ahead. Mine came from a desire to make something permanent when a lot of my convictions and thoughts about life were shifting. So it was some mixture of art, rebellion and possibly even prayer.”

In Dewald’s line of work people can sometime get judgy about the strangest things – like tattoos.

“But isn’t that just part of life?” he asks. “People project their fears, their expectations, their assumptions onto others. And tattoos… well, they’re like holding up a mirror – some people see beauty, while others see something that makes them uncomfortable. Either way, it’s not really about the ink.”

And does he plan to get more?

“Oh, absolutely,” he says. “I should have had a whole gallery of them by now. But here’s the thing: my wife is the artist, the one with the gift. But she’s also a perfectionist. She’s currently doing a design for me, but she’s caught in the maddening pursuit of ‘getting it just right.’ And honestly, I love that she puts so much thought and effort into these things. It gives weight to the story, a kind of sacred reminder that says, ‘This part of the journey mattered’.”

Dewald is a biblical scholar, family man, chess champion and Star Wars fan. So we asked AI to design a tattoo incorporating these elements. Here’s what it came up with: