The Body

I was sitting in the tattoo chair again....  Getting my Foo Dog... (For Ethan..) and talking to Mel D about why people tend to get tattoos...    

My tattoos.... of course.... are for my kids.  I'm having a symbol of my children (in traditional Japanese) carved into my body as a reminder of the mysterious ways that God works...

The tattoo itself is part of the process for me.  It's spiritual at this point.  A sacrament of sorts.  Ink.... going into skin.... Marking my body as a memorial...  A reminder.

As we were talking....... Mel..... grinding away at my skin...  he told me about a niece of his.... whose new born baby's in the hospital (not gonna make it...)

He told me that the family was already preparing for the memorial tattoo that they wanted.... sending him pictures.... with questions about what pics might work best....  

For Mel's niece...  The tattoo has become part of the process.  The pregnancy... The delivery... The bad news... The shock.... the struggle to come to grips with it... the anger.  the hurt.  the questions...  All working towards the incredibly difficult moment of letting it go.  Letting her go.

Not My Will... But yours...    

Now the family is collecting pictures of this baby and sending them out to Mel for the memorial....  The tattoo has become part of the process.        

Its a post-modern Sacrament (if you think about it).  The reminder of a time  "IT"....  happened.  The hope that there's something more.... something bigger....  The leap in the dark... the decision to do the only thing you can do.....  honor the child by engraving her onto your skin.

I've found that most non religious people aren't opposed to Sacraments in life.  Most don't mind ceremony or ritual.  What non-religious people hate is deadness...  Rigidity.  Legalism.  The choking of the living for the sake of maintianing that which is dead.          

I was discussing that with a friend...  (my friend with the Buddha tattoo...) and I was  surprised to find myself talking to her about wanting to participate in a Catholic Mass.  The Eucharist. 

The thing that intrigued her was "The Body"...
The ceremony.... taking the marked up body of the divine..... it's representation...... the bread and wine... And joining into it... with Him.... with everyone.

All of them.... All of us who have been marked with the similar type of markings that he has been marked with. 

All of us...  All at the same time.....

Marking ourselves onto the body.

2011: Wyno's Forever

I was reading a book about the way celebrities (and their love-life carousels) tend to wreak havoc on their bodies in the form of tattoos.... 

And tattoo removals.... 

And tattoo cover ups.  

Some find ways to redeem the underlying ink mistake in a cover up, or sometimes they incorporate the mistake into the next design.  My favorite example was Johnny Depp's tattoo for his then wife Wynona Ryder that read "Wynona Forever"....  

later (after their separation and divorce) changed to "Wyno.. Forever".

And for some reason that had me thinking about what's really important in my life. (Don't do new year's resolutions.... so this is as close as I get)...

A few of the things that came to mind were.... A).  "world peace", (A child of divorce.... I've been working on this one for a while)....  2).  A Tattoo....  (actually want a bunch.... but you gotta start somewhere).... and  C).  Another bottle of Moscato (Italian sparkling wine) that I (Santa) gave my wife for Christmas.

(these are my new years goals...... not necessarily in that order)

But I was reading a little on the Jewish view of world peace and I found that in the book of Isaiah a Hebrew image of a blues-free world is the world as a vineyard, where the best wine is produced.  A wine produced for the great big party to come....

That's my view of world peace this year.  It's the planting of a vineyard.... preferably somewhere close to the Mediterranean, specifically near the Italian region of Asti, where the best Moscato Bianco grapes grow without interference from any wild or contentious outside force.  Where water and soil and sun come together to harvest the perfect grape (my opinion). And where sweet sparkling sun kissed bubbles make their way across oceans and highways......
and into my liquor store, (and stomach) as a reminder of a better world to come.  A world made for sour hearted jewish men, and blues men and for (soon to be) tattooed "Wyno's", thirsty for a better world.