Like a post-it note, but on your skin. With a needle.

May 24, 2007 1:41 AM

Help me flesh out a tattoo (ha!) to commemorate life-changing events.

When I turned 18, I left high school a semester early and started college. Those last few months, I felt, were some of the most philosophically productive times I've had - every day I felt I learned something new about life and where I felt it might take me. Beautiful, poignant things that dangled on the precipice. Thrilling, and a little scary.

I wanted to remind myself of those times, so that when I grew up I would always remember what it was like to be a teenager with a wide open mind and life sprawled before me. Moreover, I never wanted to grow up to be the kind of person incapable of those feelings.

The summer before I had lived with a family in Kumamoto, Japan and had done some calligraphy. I tattooed the kanji for 'wolf' on my shoulder blade. Cliched, but the meaning is too long for this discussion.

And - in the years since then, I've changed in a lot of ways, but every morning I still look at the mark and remember who I wanted to be at 25 when I was 18. It's a wonderful anchor for a complex life.

I promised myself the next time something life-changing happened that was heavy with meaning and sentiments I wanted to remember, I would get another tattoo.

So, after 15 years of wanting and 3 long years in tech support jobs, on tuesday I'll be a professional artist working on visual effects for feature films. It took some luck and some skill, but mostly just a lot of patience, stubborness and perseverance.

Along the way, I grew up and learned a lot about how to be strong without losing your morals, or your soul. I learned that there is absolutely no alternative to hard work and time - commitment to a goal over the long haul. To have faith in one's self and one's abilities.

In that vein, I want another tattoo. Something abstract, that would take some explaining. I'm open to anything - words, pictures, iconography, whatever.

I will hope to continue the tradition as life goes on. So, perhaps a theme?

Thanks in advance, you guys on this site are all spectacular.

posted by milinar to media & arts (8 comments total)

Moreover, I never wanted to grow up to be the kind of person incapable of those feelings.

A Peter Pan tattoo?
posted by amyms at 2:00 AM on May 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Your post reminds me of this article about the significance of how people tell their life stories. That's what I wanted to say, but to actually answer the question somehow, I like the idea of a typographic theme. I think that looking at dingbat fonts (for example) would be a neat way to browse for tattoo ideas, or maybe getting the same word in a different significant writing system.
posted by dreamyshade at 2:18 AM on May 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Okay, the absolute best theme for your new image has to be "persistence of vision" which is both a well-known theory for how the human eye perceives film motion (apparently flawed but never mind, it's not going anywhere) and the perfect description of the process by which you reached your goal.

So... perhaps something like an eye with a simpler version of one of the Phenakistiscope disks linked on this page As the iris? (Look on the left, on that page, at the bottom of the yellow box, and click to see the images.)

The bird-in-the-cage thaumatrope is another example of this (remember Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane in "Sleepy Hollow" had one of these?), as are flips books. Anyway, there are lots of possibilities for "persistence of vision". Have a look around at related visual illusions and see if something catches your fancy.

And, congratulations!
posted by taz at 2:53 AM on May 24, 2007

What about a seed? The tattoo itself could be just a circle (mustard, cilantro, poppy seeds and probably sorts of tree seeds are tiny spheres) or a more recognizable shape like an apple seed or acorn, or a sprouted seed or plant.

A tree grows according to an internally-contained plan, and becomes something very strong, though not completely unyielding. And gardening / growing a tree, at least in my dry climate, requires a lot of patient, persistent work, which cannot be avoided or sped up. You could also consider the plant itself to be doing patient, persistent work in its slow growth.

Also, I really appreciated the story you told about yourself here. Congrats on the new job!
posted by gorillawarfare at 4:21 AM on May 24, 2007

I second Peter Pan. Maybe a quote from it.
posted by thebrokenmuse at 1:11 PM on May 24, 2007

You know, Peter Pan wasn't really one for growing up. Not to mention hard work or morality in any form. I say this as a big JM Barrie fan.

Are there any films that inspired you as a child? Any particular scenes that were burned into your brain and that you've been chasing ever since?
posted by roger ackroyd at 1:34 PM on May 24, 2007

Look for a meaningful quotation/reminder. There's nothing more beautiful than black script on skin.

Me? I plan on getting "DON'T PANIC" on the inside of my wrist.
posted by sunshinesky at 2:00 PM on May 24, 2007

No suggestions, really, but wanted to put in a thanks for that NY Times article link. Really interesting.

Good luck with the tattoo.
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 10:20 AM on May 25, 2007