Heart of Gold
So I went from never seeing a “heart” tattoo to stumbling across two in one day. My favorite part of meeting this woman (tragically I lost her contact info), is that I was with Noah when I walked past this woman on my way into a Starbucks (I’ll explain why I was at that particular location in my next post). She was the first person I stopped cold on the street and asked if she would offer up her story. Something tells me there may be a little bit more to what she said. I’ll leave it to you to interpret as you see fit.
“It is my heart of gold.
All of the patches on my heart are patches I have had on clothing throughout my life. So they make me think about the sweatshirt or the pants that I had, or the things that happened to me that made me patch them up. 
Having a tattoo on my chest hasn’t made a significant impact on daily life…most of the time it is covered up.
The Scars Remain
Noah has a lot of tattoos..below you will find the story of a Tattoo series. I so appreciated having the time to hear Noah’s story about what had happened during that transitional time in his life, and while this story just skims the surface of the actual experience, it was fulfilling to hear how Noah dealt with the pain of that situation. God speed (and more tattoo stories to come from Noah, so never fear).
“When my mom saw this she said, “But it’s going to be that way forever.”
And I said, “Yeah, it is.”
So it’s a human heart with stitches. It’s about what it’s like to be in a relationship and that come apart and why. It’s about my ex-wife and our experience; I got it very shortly after getting divorced. I actually tried to get it while we were still together, but I wasn’t ever able to get the timing right. I would have to cancel, or the tattoo artist would have to cancel. It wouldn’t happen until I was already separated, so clearly it was really about that. But at that point it was such a horrendous experience…without going into great detail…the experience of ending that relationship and getting a divorce really left me feeling like my heart had been chopped up.
Getting this tattoo was about healing, and is about healing. It’s also about the awareness that when you get injured really badly, emotionally or physically, the scars remain, but you will get better. But you will always have that experience be a part of you. As massive as it was, the stitches are there to show that it is healing, but that it will always be there.
So it’s not a bloody heart with knives coming out of it, but it’s also not a healthy heart. Another piece was that anyone I was going to have a relationship would have to see it…it’s kind of a bummer I guess for them. But it was going to be something that was going to come up, and it was never not going to be there.
The secondary response to it, was a tattoo I was planning to get while still married, but didn’t get till several years later, the Back Off Kitty Cat on the back of my neck. 
Again, I was interested in the visibility of tattoos, and so I liked that it was going to poke out of my shirt all of the time, and people would know, “Hey there’s a tattoo under there.”
This black cat with it’s back arched is the typical cat fair of saying, “Stay Away.” Which is something I felt like I had to do that to people for a while afterwards. So it could be cute, but it also had the meaning of, “Hey, I need some space.”
A few years ago…. I got this tattoo, 
and this was my tattoo to say, “It’s getting better.” I had gone through a emotionally turmochulous storm, but there is a shining star that is visible and is saying, “There is hope.” This is one, hopefully of many, that will appear in the night sky after the storm has gone. It’s funny because people don’t think this is real because it is so intentionally faded and soft. But I really like that the star is in the negative space. So that was my beacon of hope tattoo. Maybe there will be more in that series.
For me, tattoos are about recording history. People come and talk to me about getting tattoos and wonder what they are going to like forever. But it’s not about that. When it’s about recording history, you will have always been that person, you will have always remembered that time, and it’s just a reminder to do things differently or do things the same. So if you’re recording history, you’re never going to regret getting a tattoo.
There’s a lot of bad tattoos out there
Arik is an old friend from highschool. We moved to NYC at the same time when we were 18, but he has lived there ever since, and I haven’t. One of my favorite ways of describing Arik is that he is one of those people who always knew what he wanted …and just did it. Arik and I hung out for a bit when he was in town a few weeks ago.
“The one on my left shoulder (on the back) was done in Austin, TX in 1995. I was 21, I designed it. 
I arbitrarily found a tattoo place…figured Austin was a reliable place to get one. I didn’t know anyone at the shop…it’s ok, it’s pretty blurry at this point.
I just wanted a tattoo. I like dragons, and I liked this image enough to get it. I don’t think much about it, since I don’t see it. Most people don’t see it.
My other tattoo doesn’t show very much either. (It’s a dragonfly). I was visiting an old friend in MA, he was a tattoo artist, and I wanted him to give me a tattoo. I drew it up pretty quickly, I played it pretty safe since I knew I hadn’t been considering it for a while. He tattooed me in his house, and 
did a great job. I don’t think much about that one either.
I can’t say that they affect my life very much. Like most tattoos, you think about it more before you get it, than afterwards…because afterwards you’ve already made the decision, and that’s the hard part.
It isn’t something I took lightly even though it sounds like it. My dad is a fan of tattoos, and he always told me to get something I would really like. He thinks that tattooing has become pretty frivolous, and I agree. There’s a lot of bad tattoos out there. I actually wanted to do tattoos for awhile, but I ended up getting really turned off by the culture. I’m very particular about what I like. My tattoos are simple enough that they don’t look over done and don’t try to be more than what they are.
Kiv
It’s fun when a kid likes a dragon, and I can show them the
one on my shoulder, and Kiv likes dragonflies, so it was fun to show him my dragonfly.
Selling Tattooed Skin
Just stumbled upon this on TrendHunter:
“This must be the world’s first transaction of its kind – the selling of a tattoo while still on its owner’s body. Tim Steiner sports an elaborate tattoo of the Virgin Mary on his back which he sold to Zurich gallery owner Jutta Nexdorf for 150,000 Euros or about $218,000. The tattoo was designed by Belgian artist Wim Dalvoye and took 35 hours to create. The new owner plans to exhibit the tattoo three times a year. When Steiner dies, the tattoo would be handed over to its owner. The first exhibitions of the tattoo (and Steiner) will in Singapore and Shanghai next week. The video shows Steiner as a German talk show guest – at the very end, he takes off his shirt to show off the tattoo.”
It’s About Healing
So much has happened in the last week…putting me to the test about how true I stand by my own tattoo that states change is for the better. I stand true!
Meanwhile, let me introduce Mim. She is none other than the mother of Noah (see below). An artist, a free spirit, and joyful person. She told me this story while I was in Richmond, at the salsa party she and Chuck hosted in their backyard. Ahhhhh…I miss those warm summer nights.
“Two years ago, on July 18 at 10:15 p.m., I fell.
I was jogging around the block with my dog. It was dark, of course, and the sidewalk was uneven with tree roots breaking through. I fell, dislocated my jaw and broke my arm.
I ended up with a big, heavy fiberglass cast. It was a helluva summer. I felt damaged, and worried that I wouldn’t be able to play the piano (for real, not a joke).
BUT here’s the crazy thing in all this, a month before I fell, my younger sister in California had fallen and broken her hip, and was on bed rest. I’d been on the phone with her every other day.
AND our cousin in San Francisco had fallen a month before my sister and broken her leg. The three of us formed a club- we talked daily, which we hadn’t before, and our relationships became closer.
When my cast was removed, I was fascinated by my scar. 
The line, not quite straight, with the little white points on either side from the stitches, and the indentation on the side where the long pin had held the bones in place.
I started to think about getting a tattoo around the scar. I looked at a lot of images, thought about what I wanted, but 18 months later, I still had sensitivity in that area of my arm.
While visiting my sister, we both got small purple hearts, me on the arm that had been broken but on the outside. But I still wanted one on the inside of the arm. A few months later, while getting my hair cut, I looked down at my lap, HA! I have TWO arms and thought, ‘do the tattoo on the other arm’.
I am very happy with this newest tattoo. 
It’s about healing, about being happy, being alive, being aware of all I have to be grateful for, about peace and when I open up to people, they can see it. I love that it wraps around my arm so that people can glimpse it but not see it fully until I extend my arms.
Influencing the Landscape
When I was in Cambridge, landscape photographer Alex Maclean was kind enough to take some time out and chat about his work and explore the concept that there is a relationship between scarring and tattooing the body and scarring and tattooing the earth. We ended up getting waylaid by trying to define what differentiates an earth scar from an earth tattoo? We decided that when speaking about the earth, one is permanent, and one is not. I’ll let you guess which is which. Meanwhile…a few of Alex’s photographs 
Street Art Tattoo?
So since we are on the subject of Michael…he does street art where he uses wheat paste to glue his photographs onto walls, trucks, and other abandoned or forgotten places. I asked if he thought of this as a tattoo, and how he defined how he left his mark?
His response…” I Love how temporary the work is. Tattoos are so final, so strict, so set in their ways. The work is (hopefully) all about change.”
I like things that are about change.
I Yam what I Yam
Michael is a beloved friend, a talented photographer… and someone who actually enjoys the experience of waiting in lines. Among other things… he initiated a very cool project 7:15.
“I got my first tattoo (not this one) because I felt that I would seem tougher and it would work as armor against the years I was called a fag, or queer, gay, or nature-boy. In a way it worked — despite the fact that I’m still a pretty girlie bisexual and that no one really sees it. As for the second one, I got it when I decided that I would dedicate my life to being an artist (it’s an “art history” tattoo– actually both are– the one pictured is a woodcut by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and was included in Hitler’s degenerate art exhibit of 1937, the other is a line drawing of Mime Van Osen (a faggy looking guy himself) by Egon Schiele).
It sounds hokey but I’m sure some of your readers can commiserate that when you grow up in a suburb of DC, the son of a pragmatic federal employee, choosing a life of artistic uncertainty seems risky beyond belief. I got the tattoo as a testament to who I was at that point in my life, and I wanted it to act as a reminder for my future self.
The great thing is I’m not too different from the 22 year old who got that tattoo (I’m 35 now). The biggest difference is that now I trust my instincts and decisions much more than I did 13 years ago.
As for living with it, there are times I wish I didn’t have it and I look at the clean armed with a certain envy. But then again, I am someone who has always simultaneously loved and hated garnering attention for my appearance. I yam what I yam.”
This is who I am..forever
I went to high school with Noah! It was a treat to hang out with Noah when I was in Richmond, and he was kind enough to play hooky and hang out with me when I ran around getting interviews of other folks you will meet soon. He is a talented artist, graphic designer, and activist. His most recent project is Skull-A-Day… absolutely worth checking out, as well as his home grown socially conscious graphic design and consulting company Another Limited Rebellion. Noah taught me something, and I’m not sure I ever thanked him for it…the power of saying “we” when pitching new ideas.
“Knuckle tattoos are very specific in our culture. Who has knuckle tattoos? Serious hard-core punk rock folks…there is a choice being made when you get knuckle tattoos to very specifically remove yourself from a certain segment of society. You will never be a banker. Well…probably…never be a banker. The world is changing.
These tattoos were a 30th birthday present to myself. 30 is a charged year for people. I like to turn those kinds of things on it’s head because I think it’s a load of crap, but at the same time I think it’s hard not to have a response to it. I found a mug when I turned 30 that said, “30…over the hill.” And I think 30 was over the hill…a long time ago. Now..it’s nothing. I think people don’t realize until they are in their 30, that it’s young. But when you’re younger…life ends when your 30…because that means you are going to be old. Which is funny because that means that you’ve got from 21-30 to have all your good times… apparently.
So for me then 30 is when you are a grown up. So I got mine at 30 as a way of saying…this is it…this is who I am…forever.
I had been thinking about it for a long time. There is something really gratifying about tattoos that are always seen, and there is no avoiding it. That was important to me. I wanted something that was going to stand out in that way.
I had already gotten most of my tattoos by the time I decided to get my knuckles done …but really had an urge..I had to get them…and I needed to find something that fit the 8 spaces you have to fill.
I have hard time explaining them to people because it is too complicated. I’ll say, “Those are the Trigrams of the I Ching”. And there are three words that people don’t know. And then I say it is an ancient divination system, using more words that people don’t understand.
What is this blog about?
Many people spend their lives skimming the surface. It’s habitual: chatting, exchanging pleasantries, repeating the patterns of the day, and yet many of us are also desiring of the meaningful interactions, the deeper connections, the experiences and adventures that leave you with a story to tell. We are cut from the fabric of our parents, our hometowns, our initial experiences. But throughout our lives we sew those pieces together, and it is in the redesign, redirect, reallign, of our lives, and how we choose to tell the story of our lives… that is what weaves our creation myth.
This blog is designed to scratch the surface in order to explore the things that have left a mark, perhaps accidentally, perhaps on purpose. It explores the stories we tell, how we share them, who we tell them to, and how we live and die with them. I believe in the power of story telling. That when one person’s truth is told, than universal truths are discovered that cross race, religion, and age.
This blog, hopefully with your help, is also designed to explore if their is a relationship between how we tattoo and scar our bodies, and how we are tattooing and scarring the planet.
I find the submissions through people I know, people I meet, people I pursue, and hopefully…you. So please, scratch the surface, tell me what lies beneath.
