2011 Tattoo recap

I started this in late December and am just now completing it. Oops! Guess it got lost in the shuffle of the holidays and college enrollment. Better late than never?)

Based on my (assisted) discovery of the book The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide, I've become motivated to discuss the reasoning behind the two pieces I had done in 2011. (That and a couple people have asked to know more about them on Facebook and this is a good way to do that in one fell swoop.)

The first piece I had done this year was on July 18th and was an improvement on the only tattoo I had at the time:

The original part of this piece was the ankh and, initially, it was a hollow shape in black and white. Since I first had it done with I was about 20 (Over a decade ago! How can this BE?), I've felt like it wasn't quite finished but wasn't sure what to do with it. One day I got it into my head that I wanted to get something to commemorate my children, who are my DNA immortality, and started thinking about different ways in which to do that artistically.

Finally, after discarding a parade of "not quite it" options, I came up with the idea to use the flowers of their birth months. Ada was born in September so the aster in the middle is for her. Mina & Eli were born in February so they are the violets on either side. The ankh itself got a makeover because it had faded over time and did not look very nice next to the new work. It didn't turn out exactly as I'd pictured it in my head when the artist described what she wanted to do with it but, hey, it's on my back so I'm not the one who sees it! Honestly, I do like it and the kids have a good time pointing themselves out on a regular basis.

The second piece I had done this year (December 2nd) was both more personal in meaning and well thought out than the back piece:



Close up:


The basis for this tattoo extends back to 1997 when I was a post secondary option student in high school. One of my literature classes had the required poetry section, which I am not always a fan of. We had to find and present poems we liked in class and, in my online research (Netscape Navigator FTW!) I stumbled on this poem:

"Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color."

W.S. Merwin

It struck me at the time, as it still does today, that this is one of the shortest poems I've ever read but also the most affecting. I marvel over the fact that there isn't a word in it that doesn't improve on the feeling and image that the work creates. Needless to say, I was instantly won over. As those of you who have been seventeen are aware, it can be a very drama filled age and I was no exception. When I came across this poem, I was experiencing an absence which is probably part of the reason that I immediately committed it to memory.

The absence that I was experiencing then is one that comes and goes even now, fifteen years later. A relationship of that duration and importance is worth committing to skin (in my opinion anyway) and I've spent a lot of time rolling around ideas all these years but nothing ever coalesced into the perfect storm of excellence. That is, not until one night, several months ago, when I was letting my mind wander and the design surfaced whole and complete. Like naming a child, it was immediately clear that it was perfect and captured the relationship as well as my personality perfectly. Not convinced? Here's my reasoning:

I like to sew and used to do quite a bit of cross stitch and embroidery

I love to read and one of my favorite books is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. (Sparknotes here if you need a recap of the plot.) This relationship has had some similar elements and that's all I care to elaborate there.

I wanted the piece to look like it hurt because, let me assure you, there's been plenty of that over the past fifteen years. (Not blaming, just saying.) What could be more painful than stitching in the skin over your heart? Branding I suppose, but that would have been kind of ugly and hurt a LOT more.

My first name is Anna and it's an 'A'! Clever!

The whole idea of the tattoo applies to both one specific relationship as well as all of the people who have been important to me over the course of my life who are now absent in some way, be it through personal choice (theirs and/or mine), death, or geography. I do have to admit though that it was this one specific relationship that initially inspired the piece. Credit where it's due and all that.

So, there you have it. A fairly detailed of why I've had someone indelibly mark my body. There are two more pieces I would like to have done in 2012 and a third that would be ongoing as it would involve commemorating all of my cats past, present, and future. Yes, I really am that crazy. Whoo!