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.
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.
Scaring and Tattooing the landscape
I was completely enamored with Virginia. The gentleness of warm summer nights. The sense of abundance that comes when every alley way, backyard, and side road is bursting with some green thing. The land is rich and fertile, and at moments I feared if I stayed too long in one spot, the Kudzu and Virginia Creeper would grow right over me. I was also more than impressed by how much the city is growing; the downtown transformed from abandoned and desolate to booming and busy. My favorite comment was made by a friend while walking down Broad Street during the art walk. “There are even white people on the street.” Yes, things are changing in downtown RVA. Meanwhile, I had a few opportunities to explore some tattooing and scarring of the landscape. A trip to Maymont, one of my favorite parks on the planet, 
provided an opportunity for the first exploration of this concept. 
I got a kick out of how this picturesque view had an additional point of view.
I fell in love with this tree the second I saw it, but then a closer look proved that it would be the prefect way to initiate the discussion about scarring of the earth. 
I’m a fat head
I met Mary a few years ago through friends of friends. She is close to people I hold dear to me, and is a straight talking true southern spit fire. After the story you see below, she told us about another scar she got when she was five while playing, “cocktails” . A true southern belle.
“This scar is from a brain tumor.
The best kind of brain tumor you can have if you’re going to have a brain tumor. They took a circular saw and cut out part of my scull and peeled back the skin in order to remove the tumor. The tumor was growing out of my acoustic nerve, so they had to cut it during surgery. So now I am deaf in my left ear. Speaking of doctors that you hate (referencing Nathan’s comment below), my doctor told me, “Well, since you have such a major hearing loss anyhow, you won’t miss it.” (I had 20% hearing loss before the surgery). But I do miss it. I really miss it.
To fill where the tumor was, they took fat out of my stomach. It was the size of a golf ball. I’m not happy about the divot, but I’m glad not to have the tumor anymore. 
I can’t tell what the scar from my surgery looks like because it is not in my line of vision. But the divot in my stomach reminds me of the brain surgery all of the time. It makes me think I’m a fat head. That was an insult my father used to use all the time…and now it has become literal.
The scars are the map that help me remember the major events that have occurred in my life. “
I will never be naked again
Laura is another old friend from Richmond. One of my all time favorite moments with Laura took place on the day that an old friend died. I was in a state of shock, couldn’t quite see straight, and was in no mood to talk. She had recently finished a dissertation on the fandom of Buffy (the Vampire Slayer). She took me into her home, sat me in front of the television, and said, “I have just the thing for you,” and turned on the first season on Buffy. It was the perfect thing for that particular moment.
“It was my 34th birthday, and I had always wanted a tattoo, but I didn’t know what to get. I wanted something symbolic, but not something temporarily symbolic. But there are very few things that are permanently symbolic. So I thought, “Fuck it, I’m just going to go to the tattoo parlor and see what they have.” And they had this flower, but it was in black and white and had leaves on it. So I said, “Ok, but I want color, can you add purple and yellow? And I like tribal things.”
So they added tribal squiggles. We thought it was looking a bit flat, and so the tattoo artist just started adding color; I had no idea what she was doing. And I thought, “Ok, this is just part of the tattoo thing, I’m just going to let her do what she is doing right now. I remember thinking to myself, “I can’t believe that I am doing this because I am not usually a risk taking person.” She ended up adding the green and the blue, and I have never not been happy with it.
The piercing that I have, I can always take those out. But with this tattoo, I am never going to be naked again. And that feels kind of cool. I will always have adornment on me no matter what I do. I can’t lose my adornment.
But my mom. My mom wept when she saw it. But my dad said,
“I think it’s kinda pretty.”
In Process
I have been thinking more than writing about how to make the best use of this blog. In the name of making this a collective and collaborative project, I am going to do something I have always feared to do….I am going to put all of my ideas out there, and am hoping that people will comment and respond to the ideas that resonate with them, and the one’s that don’t. This always makes me a tad nervous as it is my nature to keep my creative ideas private before presenting to the world. However, this is a different kind of project, and i am excited by the opportunities that blogging can bring to the project, and believe in the collective genius.
I am playing more and more with the ideas of how to show the comparison with how we scar and tattoo our bodies with how we scar and tattoo the planet. Graffitti, crop circles, agriculture, mining all come to mind. I am pursuing an aerial photographer to see if he is interested in the concept and wants to collaborate.
Other news is that I am in Virginia visiting family and friends, and so just gathered a bunch of stories. Can’t wait to post! I am planning on visiting a few tattoo shops. If you have suggestions about Richmond, VA tattoo parlors or people in Richmond with scars and tattoos, I’ll be here until next Thursday.In
