My First Tattoo
By Sketch E Whiteface • Apr 13th, 2009 at 11:38 am • Category: Fnord| Hot: |  | |  | | |
DISCLAIMER: Not an advertisement for a child’s self tattoo kit. Sorry if there has been any misunderstanding.
Good evening kids, I come to you not as a young adult but as an old bastard. This previous Friday, the 10th of April, I have finally turned 21 years of age. Furthermore, and I survived. It went alright, had dinner with the family (prime rib and breaded scallops FTSLMFAJW = For The Samuel L. “Motherfuckin’ Action” Jackson Win. Gonna try and get that one out there,) went out drinking with a former coworker who has dreamed of getting me so drunk I’m yelling that the front door is locked while I stand in the living room shirtless. Alas this time was failed. Anyways, the next day I woke (sans hangover) and went along with the second phase of my birthday plans – to get a tattoo of my own design.
Now unlike many of my peers who get tattoos of stupid things for stupid reasons (“I got a star on my shoulder.” Why? “I like stars.” So do masochistic boxers.) I believe if the tattoo is meaningful and artistic it is warranted. I’m not hazing those who get them for the fuck of it but those that do, regardless of how cool it is, I can’t give you that much respect for getting it. Moving on, recently amidst my constant listening and dissection of the band Tool and A Perfect Circle I looked into chakras. Those who do not know what they are I will briefly tell you what they are. In the Hindu religion they believe there are seven chakras, seven points on the human body that run along the spinal chord that are “believed to be a center of activity that receives, assimilates, and expresses life force energy.” Each one harnesses a different energy and the symbols for these are represented by a circle with different numbers of petals (the base chakra starting with four and the crown chakra ending with 1000.) The biggest reference of chakras in Tool’s music is the transformation sequence in the music video for “Parabola” (view here,) where the character X has his chakras opened up to include the Ajna chakra, the third eye. And the biggest reference to that specific chakra would be obviously the track “Third Eye” off the album “Ænima”, which is a tribute to comedian Bill Hicks (who I am also a fan of.) After looking into chakras I became very fascinated with them and could consider to be a person who believes in their use. Because I found about them through Tool I figured it would be appropriate to not only get the Ajna chakra as a tattoo but design it as a tribute to the band as well as A Perfect Circle (in honesty, their incorporation was an aesthetic choice but I still appreciate them as much.) Like many great designs I just started doodling random shit at work, specifically eyes similar to that of the eye from Alex Grey’s painting “Net of Being” which was used as the cover to the album “10,000 Days” (view here.) Then it all tumbled together through the power of my imagination to develop into the design below.
Click here for a diagram of what the elements are
After getting it to how I wanted I felt a tremendous sense of pride in myself as an artist. I then went to a tattoo shop recommended to me by a friend, Hobo’s located in downtown Portsmouth, NH. I got a quote on it and two weeks later, the day after my birthday (the 11th) I manned up and went in with my design to get it placed on my inner left forearm. I couldn’t put it on my head where the chakra is actually located since I’d prefer not to look like a madman and I didn’t want to put it on the back of my neck because I want to see this (plus taking care of it would’ve been a pain.) Now I knew it was gonna hurt (“Really? A needle going 4000 mph into your flesh hurt? Fuck off,) but it wasn’t that bad. What kept me going through the pain (apart from clenching my first tight and locking my jaw) was the thought that eventually the pain is gonna stop and that when it’s all done it’s gonna look awesome. Which did help, even when the blood exited my pores like someone putting a paper towel on a soda spill. But after it was done it looked awesome. Granted it still has some healing to do but regardless I’m glad I got it and can understand why people are addicted to getting them. It’s the rush of trying to hold back the pain to somewhere in the back of your mind. Here are some photos I took on my webcam of my tattoo presently, I’ll take more once it’s done healing.
Side story of irony, after just leaving the tattoo shop I headed to Market Square and bumped into my friend who I didn’t get to see on my birthday. And at the same time I was fortunate enough to catch a show they were watching — four fundamentalist Christians dressed as Romans with one of them dressed as Jesus Christ carrying a large cross. Figured just got a tattoo of a Hindi-related tattoo, glad it’s covered otherwise I’d be a target. But one of the funniest things about the guy dressed as Jesus was the fact that A) he was white, B) his hair was short, and C) the cross he was dragging looked like it was made of either balsa wood or that crappy cardboard stuff you used to make a diorama of Mexico in third grade, even better it was on wheels. When I see my beaten and bloodied Jesus, I want him dragging half of a California Redwood on his back. How many people are you gonna convert if your Jesus is being a total pussy?
LINKS
Chakra Wiki entry
Ajna Wiki entry
Lateralus
10,000 Days
Alex Grey – Official site
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Sketch E Whiteface is I write, make movies and cause mayhem. Any questions, dick?
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Thanks for the great info, I will definitely be back!