He sees her flesh - pale and untouched
Like alabaster and lotus petals.
She shivers – not with cold but
Anticipation at what is to come.
He will touch her - change her forever.
She smells disinfectant and hears
The needle’s buzz. She feels
His hand on her buttock, gently
Wiping her skin. Then the pain starts,
Sudden at first. A necessary pain.
Afterwards he’s pleased with himself,
With his art, with his tenderness.
He looks again at alabaster and lotus petals,
Sullied with ink and blood.
He hopes she has No regrets. So many regret the first time.
R.Hawes 2009
~~~
After various cancellations due to life and snow getting in the way, I am sitting for the first part of a new backpiece the week after next. It will be the beginnings of tattoo number 7. Each tattoo means something to me, tells a story of its own. Each one is a piece of art that I carry with me wherever I go.
I am always interested in thoughts on bodyart. Do you have a tattoo dear reader? Why or why not?
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bookworm, geek, yoga teacher, yoga student, writer, reader, blogger, committed partner, cook, knitter, watercolour painter, list writer, cataloguer, bad speller, Fibromyalgia sufferer, woman with a crooked spine, feminist, meditator, swimmer, gym junkie, passionate organic foodie, short, skinny, tree hugger, tea drinker, lover of ridiculous shoes, crazy clothes and shiney things, grossly overeducated Foo fan. Lovingly owned by two fuzzy furball kitties.
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10 comments:
I do have a tattoo. I was a small-town girl who was a rule follower. One day when I was 19, my best friend and I were laying out at the pool, and we decided on a whim to get tatoos. We drove to the closest town with a tattoo parlor. I got a small heart tatooed on my hip. I remember coming home to show my mom, and she thought it was a fake. I didn't show my dad for a few years. Years later, while I didn't regret having a tatoo, I was wishing I had gotten something a little more meaninful, so my husband designed a tatoo to go over the top of the heart. My husband actually has 3 tatoos all of which he has designed.
i have a tattoo as well! got it when i was 19, went with a friend (as well!). she went first and got a tattoo of a frog on her bum cheek (french frogs lol).
i went next, i had drawn a treble clef with a music graph and a few notes. the dude had a HUGE beard and when I told him I wanted it on my right lower back, he informed me taht was a painful spot. "whatever, it's just a TINY tattoo"...
i yelled so loud he threatened to stop. I had tears streaming down my face, but NO WAY was I going to have half a tattoo (if i had fainted like my friend amy, he would have HAD to stop legally). In any case, it took 5 minutes, i yelled the whole time, the owners kept telling me to shush and my friend said she was glad she went first.
never again will i get another.
but I do so love mine, even 9 years later :)
I've never been good with needles - vaccines are a necessary evil, but that's as close as I can get. Plus, I see too many bad Chinese and Japanese character tattoos that don't mean what people think they mean.
But I can definitely appreciate tattoos as art, and absolutely understand the personal significance they carry. Will you talk a little more about what yours mean to you?
I have two large tattoos (a back piece and a full sleeve on my left arm), and a small one my right foot. All of my tattoos mark turning points in my life and in my mind, and all are beautiful reminders to me each day of how I aspire to live.
Good luck on the new back piece! Starting a new tattoo is so exciting.
Oh, I love tattoos. I have seven. They were all designed by me, or by friends, and all have meanings for me. They are unusual and unique and I wouldn't want to be without them.
I hope your sitting goes well!
I really wanted a tattoo when I was about 19 (is it something with that age? when we long to define ourselves, separate ourselves from the crowd?) but I could never find a design that was meaningful enough to me. I always said I'd know when I found the right one - and I never did.
Now I am SO glad I never got one, since I no longer have the urge to put ink under my skin!
I do find tattoos anthropologically fascinating though, I was recently in New Zealand and the full-facial Maori tattoos are absolutely stunning and very culturally significant.
Oh yes I have 4 tattoos, big ones, on my back / left forearm, right wrist and right ankle. Couple done in bali, one in NZ and one in Perth. I loveeeeee tattoos. They make me smile!
My story is similar to La Gitane's. When tattoos were becoming more and more common, I toyed with getting one, but didn't have just the right thing that I wanted to be with me forever. So I never got one.
Now I actually feel that my lack makes me unique!
But tattoos can be quite lovely, and meaningful.
Interestingly, my parents never allowed me to get my ears pierced either, and again, I never got around to it. Two weeks ago, both my (young) daughters got theirs pierced but I passed. I kind of like not having any holes or ink on me.
Now, I'm somewhat superstitiously saving up the piercing "energy" for if I do the kidney donation. If the surgeon cuts me, it will be the first time my body has ever been punctured and all of that vital force will go with my kidney to the recipient. Silly, huh?
I just remember in Grad school, one of my professors going on and on about Noir heroes and how they are never pierced, penetrated or punctured in classic Noir. Not that I'm anything at all like a noir hero, so maybe that doesn't really apply...
But, there you are. No art on me, although I like it on others.
I have feathers on my feet. I waited until I was 33 to get them, and every time I see them, they make me happy! I heart them! And I want another...another feather, I think. I like the lightness they symbolise.
Great post, Rachel, and you look amaxing in your header pics...
Tattoos mark a time in one's life no matter what the reason is for getting one. I am a tattoo lover and I am actuallly booked in for another two, whoot. I hope you post photos when you get your next one!
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