I don’t know man. You know I don’t believe in “meaningful” tattoos. Memorials, celebrations of events in your life, tattoos with stories behind ’em, whatever. The stories are either a cliché, an after the fact justification, or just not well thought through.
But while the tattoos themselves don’t require meaning, are the purest form of art’s for art’s sake, stories do naturally get attached to your ink. They don’t define the ink, but they define the inking process.
Take my zombie squid for example.
It in and of itself has no meaning. I like zombies, my nickname is squid, I thought it could make an awesome design. It’s just a piece of art.
But the process…
My artist wanted to do it in 3 sessions, six or so hours a hit. Ended up with those, plus a free 4th finish up session at four hours. The first two, I paid for easily enough, but then I got fired (along with everyone else making above a certain pay grade) and my third session became impossible.
Then my best friend came down from Massachusetts for the first time in four years to visit for a few days. After a few days, Christian asked me to take him to my tattoo shop so he could get an inner orbital piercing.
When we got there, he disappeared for a while to the second floor, told me not to come. When he came back, he had my tattoo artist, Troy, with him. They told me that Christian had paid for my third session, and Troy had time to finish it right there.
Six hours late, he said he was done for the day, and set up the free 4th appointment.
It’s a good story, and I love stories. I collect them like I do tattoos, or books.
And while the tattoo itself doesn’t mean anything other than a killer design, the story of getting it makes me happy.
Now, (let’s say) I got a tattoo by someone I want to get hit by the nonmetaphorical bus (let’s say Kat Von D)
The story of the process would be “This hot annoying chick did it. I had to stare down her shirt the entire time to keep from choking her”.
And saying that would make me a sexist asshole.
And I don’t wanna be a sexist asshole.
I’m fine being a normal, regular asshole, thanks.
Love. Peace. Metallica.
