The ones I love are nearly always birds. Freedom and independence, it would seem, are things that I need to be reminded of regularly, prone as I am to forgetting that they're mine. The ones I love are nearly always painterly, works of art on a living canvas. Muted colours, but not afraid. Sometimes I just fall for a reminder, or a record of a life lived.
A print of Jen Bandini's collarbones lives above my sofa, it's probably my most prized piece of art, it catches my breath every day.
About once a day I think about tattoos, about where I would put what and how I won't because I don't want one badly enough to deal with the prospects of infinite choice, commitment and paying people to hurt me, but how I love the beautiful ones and what an amazing thing it would be to carry around a piece of art that is mine and mine alone.
ditto-everyday i think about them, but forever is a long time
ReplyDeleteI keep wanting one. I have a design in mind and everything, but I keep chickening out...
ReplyDeleteJust be careful...once you get one, you end up wanting more ;)
ReplyDeleteso many terrible things happen to our bodies without our consent. i had my first scars before i really ever left the hospital, thanks to an infection i caught as a newborn. as i think i've told you, the permanence of tattoos is what i love best about them; they are choices i got to make about my person, and they'll be with me when even breath isn't. they mean different things all the time, and this week i decided they're passport stamps up my spine, thunk thunk thunk. i was her, i was there, here we are.
ReplyDeletei cannot recommend them highly enough.
I love that "carrying around a piece of art that is mine". That's exactly how I think of my tattoo. They're wonderful. I say do it :)
ReplyDeleteOh. Your piece plus Lauren's words.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping to get one as a thirtieth birthday present to myself and this has spurned me on more. This and Lauren's comment up there too.
ReplyDeleteI have one, i have had it for 18 years. It isn't a cool arty one.
ReplyDeleteI still love it.
Everyday.
I want tattoos like Jen Altman.
A girl in my Organic Chem lab had beautiful small birds on her upper back and shoulders. She said that when she studied at coffee shops people would always interrupt to ask about them.
ReplyDeleteI have one too, I have to admit it took me a while to buck up the courage but I eventually went for something meaningful to me and in a place that would never be revealed to the world in my later years! Round my belly button! I did a lot of research though as there are so many places that are just soooo wrong. Nonetheless the good ones are always worth stopping people in street for to admire! x
ReplyDeleteI have two, and all the ones I'm being inspired by for my third are painterly (as you say). I've got my eye a Velveteen Rabbit illustration for the top of my right thigh. I just have to find a good artist and some $$ to make it happen
ReplyDeleteI saw one on pinterest with tiny little birds snaking up her wrist. It was truly beautiful. But I live in fear of regrets so I probably never will :)
ReplyDeleteJen's tattoo is as beautiful as she is. I remember it literally taking my breath away when I first saw it.
ReplyDeleteand then today i found pen and ink (tattoos and the stories behind them).
ReplyDelete