The night was just beginning as we entered the Supper Club to meet with our friends. The delaying hilarity of our dinner conversation had meant we were late enough that our friends had arrived before us; a strange occurrence for someone perpetually early like me. But there they were, standing bright eyed at the other end of the bar. Tammy and Nat, good friends whose looks match like a chessboard, Nat, brunette and Tammy, blonde; dolled up as women are wont to do on such splendid occasions.
The way Tammy greeted me began in the standard way, a hug and an invited kiss on the cheek.
“Hey Sam, how are you?”
But in a twist of social etiquette, she spun around and lifted her hair above her shoulders to reveal the back of her neck, and underneath lay a new tattoo. A fresh array of stars, inked in black.
I think I made the right move and avoided the question recently inked individuals quite possibly hate, “Why’d you get it?” That question which seems to imply that there better be a good reason, the question which invites only justification and cares little for explanation.
I did offer my (admittedly unrequested) opinion however.
“Wow! When did this happen? It really suits you.”
It does suit her. However, I wondered at the time why she decided to keep it so quiet, rather than ask for people’s advice, but since then I’ve contemplated the tattoo scenario only to realise that there is such a myriad of opinion on body modification that asking advice on such a thing might be dangerous.
Skin Deep and Deeper
As I write this, I am sitting on the ninth floor of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Kings Cross. The large glass windows alongside one wall overlook a park across the road, and the western skyline in the distance. Part of ‘The In-Between’ I’ve been trying to define is definitely evident in the way that a public space can influence your thought processes, but I’m going to overlook those intricacies this week to talk specifically about the two thoughts I had while sitting here. Firstly for the individual, and then on society. The temporariness of physicality in the wards where I sit, and the expressed identity in the society that fills the skyline like an ant farm with credit in place of crumbs.
Jacques Derrida, in his work on prosthetics postulated that ‘a future that would not be monstrous would not be a future; it would already be a predictable, calculable, and programmable tomorrow.” It’s important not to reel back from the word “monster” as we’ve become accustomed to it. In this sense, Derrida is talking about the anomalies in the world that break the mould, whether human, animals or otherwise. Things which Meredith Jones says monsters are “often seen as harbingers, foretelling disturbances in the established order, heralding or symbolising unwelcome but important change…[they] not only signify what we are not but also what we are becoming: that which may eventually be embraced” and I’d argue that this is possibly true. Tattoos over the years have moved from being a masculine endeavour, tied to the armed forces and other forms of community allegiance, to being a non-gender specific form of identity branding. On an individual level, tattoos are a form of self-expression that will last a lifetime. That is the reason the question ‘Why’ can be a sore spot with those who have newly acquired tattoos. It is such a major step in life, that you may as well ask them why they married their husband, or why would they bother having kids.
There is no doubt that body modification, stretching from a simple tattoo to full facial reconstruction, has a huge impact on human identity. The visual aesthetic is so important in the foundation of identity in human relationships. It is the reason why make-up and fashion are multimillion dollar industries, so any changes to the aesthetic, whether for beauty or what Orlan calls anti-beauty are going to help forge a new identity for their adoptees. For some, inking the skin they believe only has to carry them until they reach the afterlife is a way to express in a very human way the metaphysical belief systems they have. For instance, though I did not ask Tammy why she got her tattoo, she later sent to me the bible verse which was behind her choice.
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.” (Philipians 2:12-16)
Even though the tattoo itself suits Tammy, the biblical reference makes it all the more poignant and in my opinion, is much better than the more cliched cruifix. The visual impact is a solid affirmation of her individual faith.
And as I look out on our mammoth human ant farm, it seems to me that is difficult for an individual to stand out, or move beyond the social structures which are reinforced on a daily basis. On a more progressive (and social) level, artists like Stelarc and Orlan use their bodies as their canvas, to try and stretch the imagination, to corner people’s perception and nudge it into a new direction. Orlan herself has ‘borrowed features from iconic beauties…appropriating the Mona Lisa’s rather bulbous forehead…now has lumps the size of kidneys just above her eyebrows… often [putting] glitter on them so they’re highlighted and honoured as things of beauty.” By accentuating the notion of beauty in her own facial features to be grotesque, or ‘monstrous’, she challenges the traditional perceptions of beauty with her individual body modification.
And as I sit here, in the waiting room, contemplating the temporary nature of the human physical experience, the follies we make and the bruises we endure, it seems to me that a tattoo isn’t such a big deal in the grand scheme of things. If you have the dedication to a philosophy enough to brand yourself with it for life, you have more than my blessing. But what do you think? Leave me a comment below. Have you got a tattoo? Why not?
