My Michigan
Aug. 5th, 2003 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rinueI am increasingly preoccupied with the idea of getting a tattoo. This does not take the form of desiring a particular drawing or wishing to ornament a specific body part. No, I simply want A tattoo, a tattoo that symbolizes something (anything) in a place that looks halfway decent. Also, I would like it to be somehow relevant to my life.
This is so dangerous I have to present it to people in a tricksy and underhanded way.
[EXTERIOR, SWIMMING POOL, DAY.]
ROMIE: I think I'm going to take up cliff diving.
VALANCY: . . .
ROMIE: In Africa.
VALANCY: . . .
ROMIE: Only instead of cliffs, I'm going to jump off ravening lions. But with scuba gear.
VALANCY: . . .
ROMIE: Don't worry, though; I've been practicing by taking large blotters of acid, hanging off the roof, and thinking myself through the process.
VALANCY: . . .
ROMIE: Alternately, I suppose you could persuade me to get some kind of tattoo. I'm not especially picky.
When I say this is incredibly dangerous, I mean that I run the risk of being mistaken for a drunken sorority whore or teenage proto-punk poseur.
- Hey, wouldn't it be awesome if I got this giant tattoo of, I dunno, a snake eating a car, and then I dyed my hair black and shaved the word "cunt" across the back of my scalp and braided the rest of my hair so it could thread through six nose rings? That would totally rule.
I was at a club a few weeks ago and every woman in the place had a symmetrical cookie-sized tattoo at the base of her spine, where it could teasingly wink between low-cut jeans and a midriff shirt. I have also known people who drop trou for tattoo-less strangers so they can brag about the pain of it all. These people have taken something meaningful and personal and turned it into a pickup line. They are the commercialization of Christmas. They've also missed an important lesson in the art of cool - it has to look effortless, or at least undirected. I bet they buy their jeans distressed but throw them out once they gets holes in the knee. This is what I mean when I say it is dangerous to want a tattoo: it is not the same as wanting a specific tattoo. It is writing a love song before deciding who it's for.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that I am needful of a tattoo. I don't get them to carry around my past, although I suppose there is that aspect. Mostly, they're a pact with myself, in my own flesh. If I put a seal on my skin, it's a promise to care for it. It's a vow to exercize and eat right to keep the design from distorting with sudden weight gain. It's a contract to wear sunblock so the dye won't pale. It requires that I stay the sort of person who can carry off the tattoo's spirit.
In return for all that, I get a permanent home in the form of my skin, which nobody can take off, take out, shave off, or haul away. It persuades me that there are intangibles which will remain constant, personal ideals that will not fade.
It is my only proof of loyalty.
It is my only certainty of a future.
This is so dangerous I have to present it to people in a tricksy and underhanded way.
[EXTERIOR, SWIMMING POOL, DAY.]
ROMIE: I think I'm going to take up cliff diving.
VALANCY: . . .
ROMIE: In Africa.
VALANCY: . . .
ROMIE: Only instead of cliffs, I'm going to jump off ravening lions. But with scuba gear.
VALANCY: . . .
ROMIE: Don't worry, though; I've been practicing by taking large blotters of acid, hanging off the roof, and thinking myself through the process.
VALANCY: . . .
ROMIE: Alternately, I suppose you could persuade me to get some kind of tattoo. I'm not especially picky.
When I say this is incredibly dangerous, I mean that I run the risk of being mistaken for a drunken sorority whore or teenage proto-punk poseur.
- Hey, wouldn't it be awesome if I got this giant tattoo of, I dunno, a snake eating a car, and then I dyed my hair black and shaved the word "cunt" across the back of my scalp and braided the rest of my hair so it could thread through six nose rings? That would totally rule.
I was at a club a few weeks ago and every woman in the place had a symmetrical cookie-sized tattoo at the base of her spine, where it could teasingly wink between low-cut jeans and a midriff shirt. I have also known people who drop trou for tattoo-less strangers so they can brag about the pain of it all. These people have taken something meaningful and personal and turned it into a pickup line. They are the commercialization of Christmas. They've also missed an important lesson in the art of cool - it has to look effortless, or at least undirected. I bet they buy their jeans distressed but throw them out once they gets holes in the knee. This is what I mean when I say it is dangerous to want a tattoo: it is not the same as wanting a specific tattoo. It is writing a love song before deciding who it's for.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that I am needful of a tattoo. I don't get them to carry around my past, although I suppose there is that aspect. Mostly, they're a pact with myself, in my own flesh. If I put a seal on my skin, it's a promise to care for it. It's a vow to exercize and eat right to keep the design from distorting with sudden weight gain. It's a contract to wear sunblock so the dye won't pale. It requires that I stay the sort of person who can carry off the tattoo's spirit.
In return for all that, I get a permanent home in the form of my skin, which nobody can take off, take out, shave off, or haul away. It persuades me that there are intangibles which will remain constant, personal ideals that will not fade.
It is my only proof of loyalty.
It is my only certainty of a future.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-05 10:10 pm (UTC)-C
P.S. Come to think of it, I don't think I'd need the fifty bucks.