I have written about this before, proudly baring my own expression of rebellion stemming from a strict upbringing in the south, and a father who was in the navy, and proudly bore no tattoo. Why? because he said it was crap, a waste of time to mark your body like that, when really he was a cheap skate who felt beer was the inner tattoo of his life, on his liver- he was who he was.
Oh you know we all do not agree with our parents, but my own son bares a few tattoos that I approve of. I am an artist; it is art. Expression in a bodily form. Sure we do not visualize our selves as our grandparents, sagging skin ink marks that fad like our looks with time. Beauty is on the inner soul. Outter Beauty is in the mind. So is the thought that every time I heard "Oh you look just like mammaw Akin when she was your age", and I saw her sparkly eyes and love for me, so I grew up believing we are tattooed by kindness and love.
Sure some of you may think I live in a dream world, but darn it I got a tattoo, and I loved every painful drag of that mechanical ink pen, as I bled, and my feelings for my partner manifested into a work of Kama Sutra- The Embrace. Enough said.
I found it amusing to read a blog I follow as she wrote a piece filled with her own feelings of being 'Marked' for life. ~ Always Curtsy When You Sneeze
I read this poem at open mic and it always get requested from time to time...
TATTOO
Ink running lines
Symbols and rhymes
Dance upon the flesh
Pain and blood
Double shots- double dares
Turning color- directing shape
Our own peace and love
Rites once reserved
Fathers, sons
Becoming, following
Captains across oceans
Sailors lost at sea
Their doctorates- universities
Cryptic- ancient trinities
Stopping short of infinity
Harmony- enemy
Flowers- sun- moon and stars
Seem to shine
Calendars for birth, deaths of all kinds
Movements that deceive- believe- could be
Ragged or smooth- satisfies a need
ALL in what you want to read
Inner arms
Barbwire biceps
Shoulders to the ankles
Cute little toe rings
Purple, pink, green, blue, yellow, red or just plain black
Once it’s done you can’t take it back!
© E. Stelling, 9/29/08
