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.
And did you get what you wanted from this life…
Dan has two tattoos….
“I got this one 2 years ago…just before a long relationship was ending. I got this because Raymond Carver’s poetry is this most important poetry to my life. And this one in particular crystallizes and reminds me of things I try to remember. That the good things in life are not physical things. not objects…that the stuff that I really value and want to go after is feeling, and experience, and fulfillment itself. And so this reminds me whatever happens from here on out, I already have the good stuff. My life’s already fulfilled. And anything else that happens after now is just gravy. Icing.
“And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.”
It does a good job of reminding me of the stuff I wanted to be reminded of, weather it was because it is in front of me, or it was just time, whose to tell. But I think I have been more present with the idea.
- Looking at the tattoo from Dan’s perspective
Outside of my life, I have spoken to more people than I had in my entire life before getting the tattoo. This (referring to the tattoo on his forearm) gets people’s attention. Clerk’s and cashiers in particular. People get a particular look when they are reading my tattoo and are trying not to be seen… so I get to see people in those unguarded moments when they are readying and don’t know that I know.
