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034: Show, No Telling

I'm not inked. As a rite of passage, I burned an ankh into the back of my left hand on my 21st birthday. I used a fork and a votive candle, and it took awhile to get right. If the light is good, I can see the mark on my hand now. The scar which has no care of the light is on the underside of my left forearm. It's a two inch mark from where I sliced myself with a hand saw when I was 12 or 13. The mountain ridge running across the top of my right foot is the reminder of the surgery it took to find the toothpick which had been lost in my flipper. (Bare feet, quarter-inch pile carpeting, toothpicks: bad combination, let me tell you.) These are the marks I have on my skin.

I worry that a tattoo will fall into the same category: a reminder of rushed action. I point to my flesh and say, "Look, this is where a saw slipped." Or, "This is where I was toppled by a sliver of wood." I don't want to have that same reaction to the ink which has been inscribed into my skin. They are powerful symbols -- tattoos. They tell stories about you that don't require you to speak. They are micro bursts of information. Stamps of personality.

I want to know about your initiation. Go the forum and post me a picture of your first tattoo. Flash me with the first symbol that you had speak for you.

And later you can tell me why.

Posted by Teppo at April 6, 2003 09:41 PM

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