Nora Blansett: An Immigrant’s View of the Tattoo
My name is Nora Blansett, and I’m an artist and photographer. I immigrated to Canada in 2005 from Virginia Beach, VA bringing with me all the excitement and joy of finally coming to the country I felt I belonged in my entire life. After moving here, I heard about the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo and couldn’t wait to see the marching bands, dancers, singers and various acts of skill and surprise.
Started in 1979, The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo kicks off July 1 every year in Halifax at the city’s main indoor venue, the Halifax Metro Centre. This event features various types of performers from Canada and around the globe, and is the largest indoor show in the world.
The performance is rooted strongly in the rich military histories of the City of Halifax, the Province of Nova Scotia, the rest of Canada, and those of the many countries participating in the show.
I felt as if I had been formally introduced to the world in a way that I’d never appreciated in all my years of world travel. The colours, the pride and the lightning both on the floor and in the eyes of all those around me just lit me up with all the power of a storm to come! Next to me sat a woman who told me she’d attended every Tattoo from the very beginning and travelled across this beautiful country every year to experience it again and again. I was both amazed and yet humbled that my experiences so far were nothing compared to those who have supported the various troops stationed throughout the world. Canada’s troops — Canada’s men and women, both fighting for peace and justice in far away places, sacrificing home and family for causes they believe in.
I felt the overwhelming sense of pride swell up from around the arena as the salute to fallen soldiers and those still hard at work so far away from home. Then suddenly I saw that a marching band from my home country, the Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes & Drums from Massachusetts, and could only be dazzled that they were here again with all that is going on in the world — my other country making its first appearance in at least ten years. How does it feel to be an immigrant and see both your home country and your chosen residence to stand side by side again, saluting each others sacrifices to give us, the residents and citizens of such a great country, the comforts we surround ourselves with?
As I watched the Tattoo through the lens of my camera, I could have fallen to my knees time and time again at the beauty and pageantry that was all around me. I laughed, I cried, I prayed and I stood up with the crowd at the end — desperate for my shouts of praise to sing as high as my voice could carry them. I look forward to the next Tattoo and all those that follow — someday proudly telling a young woman next to me: “I’ve seen every Tattoo since I immigrated here.”
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