Here's an interesting post from Yuppie Punk -- on the new literary genre of tattoos. I find it fascinating that folks would inscribe whole literary passages on their bodies. There's even an invitation to send in a picture of your own literary tattoo. And I am astonished at the range of literary choices...not sure in my 80s if I would feel the same way about a scrap of J.K. Rowling on my chest -- but maybe I could go in for a Flannery O'Connor quote, such as "She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick." The big question is where to put it...
Not so long ago, I taught a high school English class called "Literature and the Visual Arts." One of the units was a look at the tattoo -- as story/text/memoir/visual art inscribed on the body. We studied all manner of tattoos -- from traditional Polynesian, gang and prison tats, Naval history, Yakuza, and those from the current popular culture of folks just wanting to say something about themselves to the viewer. I was greatly helped in this endeavor by a terrific book, Dorothy Parker's Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos, edited by Kim Addonizio and Cheryl Dumesnil, which contains wonderful essays, poetry. and short fiction on tattoos. My favorite tattoo stories here were "Parker's Back," by
Flannery O'Connor, and "The
Fifteen Dollar Eagle," by Sylvia Plath. (I also gave the students a copy of Junchiro Tanizaki's "The Tattooer," which is an eerie little fantasy story.)
My only warning to the class of all boys was if they got too carried away with the unit and got themselves inked, I'd fail them. I didn't want parents calling me up to complain I'd encouraged the boys! Their response was to lift up their shirt sleeves, t-shirts, and pant legs and reveal a whole art gallery of tattoos. And every one of them had a story behind them. My favorite was a beautiful tattoo of Arthur's Excalibur with a dragon wound around it. The student had designed and drawn it himself. He regarded it as a call to honor, a challenge to live in a certain "heroic" fashion.
While we're at it, take a look at Shelley Jackson's fascinating project Skin -- a 2,095 word short story, tattooed one word at a time on as many volunteers. It's a really interesting use of narrative and tattooing -- although, I figure it would have been my luck to get the word "the" ... still, that word alone could have a kind of zen fullness I suppose.
And, if you need more...stop by Literary Ink, a blog devoted to showing off the literary tattoo and a really cool older post from Darren Barefoot's blog. I sure wish these had been around when I was teaching!
