“Doubt thou the stars are fire;

Doubt that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt I love.”

-Hamlet by William Shakespeare

One of the greatest gems of English literature has summed up how infallibly powerful true love is in four simple lines. Love gives humans a reason to live despite all odds, ‘cause no matter how hard our day has been, we always want to return home to see the smiling faces of the people we love the most. And ultimately, love is one of the forces that make the world go around.

And that is why so many of us fall in and out of love with people, break our hearts and mend them all over again, all in search for ‘the one.’ We look for that one person who will accept us. We love us as we are, hold us tight, and stand by us through thick and thin, the person to whom we can open our hearts, the person who will always choose us before anyone else. This person will value all the love we have to offer and multiply it into a boundless ocean with the love that they give us in return.

Very often, these dreams do come true. They say that matches are made in heaven, and when we finally find ‘the one’- our soulmate, our twin flame- we start believing it, as there couldn’t be any other person who could fill up the hollow space in our lives in a better way. This bond of true love may stretch and bend when there are misunderstandings or distances, but it can never break. This unbreakable bond is the only thing that has inspired so many couples worldwide to get a red string of fate tattoo on their pinky fingers as a tribute to their undying love.

What is the red string of fate tattoo?

Two lovers get this tattoo on their pinky fingers, signifying that the red string of their bond may stretch or tangle, but it can never break. The story behind it traces back to ancient Chinese folklore.

According to Wikipedia: “The gods tie an invisible red cord around the ankles of those that are destined to meet one another in a certain situation or help each other in a certain way. Often, in Japanese culture, it is thought to be tied around the little finger.”

How did this come to exist?

This belief is based on various Chinese folklore.

According to one of them, a young boy found an old man on his way back home on a moonlit night. This old man was actually Yue Xia Lao, the Chinese god of marriage, who showed this boy a young girl destined to be his wife, attached to him by an invisible red thread. But since the boy was too young to be interested in his future wife, he threw a stone at her and ran away.

Years later, as a grown-up young man, the boy gets married. When his bride reveals his face to him, he is shocked, for it is the same girl that the old man had shown to him. He notices a thread on her eyebrow. When he asks her about it, she tells him that a boy had thrown a stone at her when she was younger, and she wears it to cover the scar. That is when he learns that she was the one connected to him via the invisible red thread, his soulmate.

To celebrate the beauty and immortality of true love, so many couples get this tattoo in the hope that their love will stay immortal and unbreakable as if tied by the magical and invisible red string of fate. It is beautiful to see that people still believe that true love will remain beyond the end of time no matter what the circumstances are. It is only refreshing to see that people still value true love so much when all the sham and pretense of the world has crept into relationships.

So friends, go out there and get this trendy tattoo with your partner or find your own beautiful way to express your love for your ‘special one,’ a love that will never die. And if you haven’t found someone yet, don’t fret. For when it is the right time, love will track you down wherever you are, and Cupid’s arrow will go straight through your heart!