Dear Tattoos,
Once I start thinking about you, the harder it is to stop. I find myself doodling you designs on paper, looking at every cool image and thinking of it as a you design, wondering where on my body a good you should go . . . It's kind of ridiculous.
Because there's no getting around it, Tattoos, you are cool. Really cool. You look cool and feel cool to have. You represent this other way of being in the world that is just plain fascinating. When somebody mentions having you, everybody in the vicinity just feels like, "Oh! Let me see!"
You are hard to explain to people that have none and would never consider having one. One must have a certain type of mentality to get one in the first place, I think. But once somebody gets some you, there's no going back. You are addictive. You make a person want to keep getting you until their whole body is covered up. Kids love fake you. They draw them all over their arms with Sharpies (I certainly did - and still do, sometimes). And then they grow up to get you and show them off to other people (or keep personal, depending on the person).
But here's the catch - you are permanent. I'm serious. You last forever. And so the cool you of ten years ago may prove to be the embarrassing you of today. In fact, I think that probably happens quite a lot. And with that knowledge comes the fear of, "what if I get this one, and it just looks DUMB once it's actually finished? What if the artist sucks?" What then?
And so the smarter people of the world hesitate and really put some deep thought into their you. Because nothing is stupider than stupid you. Few things can be worse than the feeling of looking at you in the mirror and regretting it. Because that just makes a person feel STUPID.
And so today I found myself in Powell's (the largest bookstore in the States, I think) looking for books about you. And where were they? Locked in a special case where nobody could access them without the aid of an employee. Which is awfully strange considering there are thousands and thousands of books in the store - many quite valuable - and all of them on open shelves. Except for books about you. And marijuana. Which were in the same locked case. What does that imply about people's assumptions about those who want or have you? Right.
But I still want one. And after looking at the books that I was allowed to touch and only read while standing AT the information desk, I have decided that I want some full-back Yakuza-style Japanese you. Because they are incredible. And really, really cool. And there's no way I could EVER regret that.
Nope.
So thank you, Tattoos, for being so awesome and making me want more you. I'm sure my parents thank you, as well.
Looking Forward to Getting Pretty,
CVT
5 comments:
Now this one I can relate to, though I'm absolutely stunned that in a community as "open minded" as Portland, they treat literature on the subject as contraband. That's bizarre.
I like your Yakuza idea. A lot of people I know have been leaning toward Japanese art recently, and it's amazing stuff. Even when done badly.
Here's something that will help you to waste days worth of time:
http://www.bmeink.com/bme-tatt.html
i had an interesting discussion with the artist who did my first tattoo. (well i should hope so since it took over 3and a half hours of inking time alone). I was talking about the "permanence" of tattoos. After all the very large design I was having inked on my body would last until the end of my days. As far as I can see, that is the end of time/ permanent. She had an entirely different take. From her stanfpoint is is temporary. The vessel with said tattoos is temporary, and barring the skinning of an individual, post mortem to save the design, once a person is either buried... or placed on a drifting set of logs on a river and the flaming arrow is cast... the artist's work is no more. There is no eternity of staying on the wall in a frame in the house that gets passed down through the generations, no gallery exhibit people will come by centuries later to witness the fine skill of the creative tat artist. A tatto for the artist is temporary as the wearers life span.
An interesting example of standpoint. As far as powell's locking up the books and being rude and unhelpful while making you stand to look at items treated like "contraband". For being the largest new and used book store in the country, you'd think they owuld handle that differently. Why not lock up all the books on how to be a maniacal capitalist? People shouldn't be able to read and write those. Or what about books on how to make fruit cake, after all that should really come to a stop- holidays or not. Maybe we should send them a list of what to lock up. And clearly it shouldn't be the books on marijuana or tattoos.
There are far more dangerous things than these. Like America's approach to foreign policy, poverty, hunger, violence, seasonal affect disorder, etc... and we need books to better understand all of the above from different perspectives.
FREE THE BOOKS! Pot smoking tattoo wearers are people too! (Mighty fine ones if you ask me!)
Not that I am trying to recruit people into getting tattoos and smoking pot, people will make their own choices regardless of the books we lock up. I'm just accepting the multifaceted spectrum of poeple in our gray city, that honestly needs color wherever it can get it, and whose beauty is greatly appreciated because of the abundance of "trees".
Ms. The 1st Tattoo Wont Be the Last
ATTENTION PREVIOUS POSTER:
I make fruitcake. Delicious fruitcake.
FREE YOUR MIND.
perhaps your fruitcake is THE exception to the general "fruitcake is nasty" rule. Had I eaten yours, and not ones that were best used as paperweights made by other people, I am sure my view would be different.
With a name like "the King" i trust that you know how to get things like fruitcake done right. however I will probably just have to take your word for it, since i now have fruit cake phobia.
Ms. Trying to make me go eat some fruit cake, but I say No! No! No!
(sung to the tune of that song about rehab)
you were kidding about the yakuza tattoo. right? right?
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