Anatomical Hearts: Obligatory Valentines Day Post

I flash around my favorite tattoo like some people do diamond rings:

 

I've probably posted this picture at least four times before today. But did I mention I love this tattoo?  It's recreated from this Frida Kahlo painting, and in honor of Valentines Day, it only seems fitting to find ways to accessorize it.  Or, ways for someone to tell their honey that they've stolen their heart, (ambiguous pronouns - my fav!).  

First, learn how to make your own heart card at Cheeky Magpie.  You can decorate it with bling, deliver a stern message that resembles a restraining order, or tack it on your wall because it's nifty. 

 

Continuing the theme of interactive anatomy, there is this heart locket that opens and closes, but probably won't hold a picture, unless you want it crinkled.  

Heart or no heart, I really want one of these Earth friendly coffee cup cozies.  Sadly, I'm not crafty enough to make it myself. 

Lennon wants a messenger bag to go with his new bike... I wonder how he'd feel about this.

If I was in medical school I would use this ring to cheat. 

And since it's Valentines, I have to include a "you hold the key to my heart" necklace.  I'm just wondering when Kay will adopt the design, start encrusting it with diamond chips and selling it?

To accompany this Valentines post, I decided to include my personal soundtrack for every potential VD setting:

Scenario One: Forget Valentines Day, singledom is superior. 

Daniel Johnston: True Love Will Find You In The End


Scenario Two: Valentines Could Have Rocked But You Ruined It I Hate You

Brand New: Okay I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don't

Scenario Three: Broken Hearted and Nostalgic

Jack Penate: Pull My Heart Away


Scenario Four: I love you, I love you, I love you

City and Colour: The Girl

Have a happy Valentines, Sunday, however you prefer to look at it :)

I'm going to Dallas and hope to take Indiana's advice and stop here to check it out.  How are you spending the weekend?

Guest Post on Wicked Whimsy: Tattoo Fashion

The lovely and creative Michelle over at Wicked Whimsy has spent the past week moving, which means loads of work and little, if any internet access, (the horror!).  She is both an Austinite and fellow tattoo enthusiast, and I can not wait to see pictures of her steampunk inspired living room, (Victorian styled fashions and antiquated machinery grind my gears in a good way - sorry, terrible pun).    

Moving along, I was honored when she let me write a guest post for her blog, so here is the piece I wrote for her and her readers:

Tribal Steampunk Tattoo

Inspired by Michelle's post on tattoo etiquette that first led me to discover her blog, (which was double exciting by realizing she's a fellow Austinite), I wanted to continue the tattoo theme in writing about the growth of tattoo visibility in all spheres of the world, including the highly fickle world of fashion.

above: Kat Von D, Megan Fox, Gala Darling

Tattooing has a long history of either being a social pariah, (if you ask Leviticus and a few others, including my grandmother), or a social standard, (look at certain tribal groups, pre-Christian Europeans, punks, etc).  Tattoos have rarely solicited neutral reactions, and in the past they were delegated solely for men, and usually burly ones at that.  With shows like Miami Ink and LA Ink gaining massive followings, tattoos have slowly and shyly been stepping out from the whale's tales and coat sleeves they've been hiding behind.  While people with tattoos seem to often attract other people with tattoos, creating cloisters of tattoo sub-cultures where the non-inked are not permitted, the growing idea of tattoos-as-fashion is breaking down the barriers built by the tattoo needle.

It wasn't that long ago, (or was it?  Maybe I'm growing old), that boys in my high school walked around sporting their tribal tattoo inspired bowling shirts.  This was one of the first major leaps that ink made from skin to fabric, and for better or worse, it's started a domino effect in the fashion industry.

Tattoos are no longer for the burly and pierced, even Italian shoe and "it bag" affectionados have started to merge fashion with ink.  The branding of personal parts with highly recognizable labels was another domino in the path to tattoo fashion that now permeates departments stores, shoe racks, handbags, and even shower curtains.

Ed Hardy, student of classic tattoo artist Sailor Jerry Collins, has brought the vintage tattoo aesthetic off the wall flash of a tattoo shop and made it available to anyone who has ever been a fan of tattoo design but not wanted the permanence of ink work... or anyone who's a fan of trends, as the Ed Hardy brand has exploded in popularity.  I was thisclose to purchasing an Ed Hardy baby-doll shirt from Nordstrom Rack this week, but some sense of indignation wouldn't let me.

As much as I love tattoos, (especially the four I have so far), I can't bring myself to support an industry that takes the personal story and unique art out of the design work by mass printing it.  On the flip side, I appreciate how the popularity of tattoo fashion has helped further propel the public acceptance of visible ink work, especially since I made no attempt to secure future job opportunities when I tattooed my neck and both forearms, (not propelled enough, though, since it didn't stop an elderly Spanish man where I work from telling me it was so sad that I'm going to hell because of my tattoos, since I seem so nice).

What do you think of tattoo inspired fashion?  Is it a trend to keep, toss, or let evolve beyond just the tribal and Sailor Jerry styles?

Hayley - I hope this helps.

The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

When I taught English the past three years, (which I'd like to go back to at the college level in the not-so-distant future), I liked to use art as an introduction to analyzing, interpreting, and later creating symbolism and metaphor with my students. With the help of power point, William Carlos William's "The Red Wheelbarrow," and some well-known artists with heavy symbolism in their paintings, I opened up each poetry unit with class discussions about the significance of elements in a handful of artistic works. This Williams poem is ideal because it immediately draws attention to color symbolism, (a great follow up for this is the film What Dreams May Come), as well as free association with the objects depicted, as well as incites a discussion around William's spacing of the words. I used the colors, objects, placement, etc, to launch into the analyzation of art work that I projected onto the front screen, (which I'm old enough to remember actually watching film strips on in elementary school).

Andy Warhol was an easy place to start, simply by having the kids pay attention to the artificial coloring of his subject, the intentional over-the-line placement of the color, as well as the facial expression on the particular photo he chose. I had the kids take notes in their composition books so they could keep track of both their own opinions, and the ideas expressed by their neighbors.

Frida Kahlo is also excellent for inciting class discussion, and I chose images like the Two Fridas above, El Venadito and Border Women. She has so many details in her paintings that it was exciting for the kids to get to write down as many as they could find and then talk with each other about what the different pieces meant and how they fit together into a cohesive message. Every class period I learned something new from the kids.

And in case it wasn't obvious, I'm a huge Frida Kahlo fan. Today was especially exciting because I got to see a real Frida up close at the Harry Ransom Center on the UT campus. They had Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird on display and it was the first time I'd ever been able to see a painting of hers close enough to make out brush strokes.

The discussion concluded with Edward Hopper, who I first learned about in an Asian Studies class when I was in high school. The teacher talked to us about Hopper's depictions of light and dark and the theories of the darkness as the unknown human psyche and the west's fear of exploring these shrouded parts of our selves. Etcetera. I would post the painting Gas and we would discuss the source of light in the painting, the direction the man was facing, the road dividing the natural world from the man-made world, and it always yielded new insight for me.

The culmination of this discussion was to write an eckphrastic poem about the Magritte piece, Son of Man, to see if the students could implement their new take on symbolism and its assorted manifestations in art and literature. The above painting, Homesick, is one of my favorites, though, and I've often thought of getting part or most of it as a tattoo, perhaps on my hip since I've read that's what women use to lead with when they walk, and I'd like to think I'm always walking homeward, even if starting out in the opposite direction.

Hayley, if you're feeling renegade then you could analyze my new found love - Banksy. I recommend browsing through his site to find some of his images, since he has a lot to say about modern culture in his works. Plus, having an idea of who your AP Language and Comp teacher is, I think her reaction to graffiti art would be PRICELESS. But you know... your paper, your call :)

I miss my classroom! And my lessons! And (most of) my kids! But not 8AM first period. I'll gladly trade that for my after-school program director hours. Another potential perk of college teaching - a dynamic schedule.

And on a final note - not that I'm sure where you'd go with analyzing his pieces, but I also think that Alphonse Mucha is very beautiful. If I decide to get one of his images tattooed on me, I've already got a spot picked out.

I wish I could give you some more esoteric artists, but you have to forgive me, as my studies were English literature, and I only know the art that is popular or that I stumble upon. Good luck with your analysis!

I got posted!

On Contrariwise! I love this website. Normally when people ask me what my tattoo says, and I explain it, they look at me like I'm weird. And while this may be true about me, it's not because of the tattoo(s).

Take These Tattered Boxes

Tomorrow night is the qualifiers slam for the Arkansas national slam team, and I'm heading to Fayetteville to watch, meet people, and hopefully get to read during the open-mic. I'm taking one of my last remaining sick days, and hope I can hold out the last 2.5 weeks of school till summer comes. The thing I am most excited about for summer: being able to read a book in its entirety! Currently diving into American Jesus, and if my tenth grade history teacher at Mt. St. Mary's didn't convince me to fall in love with Thomas Jefferson already, this might push me over the edge. And it seems my concern that "denouncing" my faith in the miracles of Christianity has not actually caused my interest in religious studies to waver, which I consider a relief.

Tonight was our final Creative Writing Club meeting of the year, so Lennon brought in pizza for the kids, and my now graduated student, Whitney, made special cupcakes iced with her signature symbol. I told her she absolutley could not bring cupcakes iced like this to school, so she cleverly brought the icing with her and frosted the cupcakes in my room while I was in the computer lab with my 7th period. Blue icing, of course. Luckily, all evidence of her indiscretions have been consumed.

Whitney's signature cupcakes.

After our meeting, Whitney let me know that she had gone to receive a tattoo she had been wanting, but I wasn't sure she would actually go through with it. This is a picture she posted of her new body art:

Whitney's new ink

I'd have to say that I disagree with her sentiments. I could quote Gandhi and say, "Where there is love, there is life," but I prefer to let The Format do my talking for me in this scenario. So Whitney, here is my rebuttal.

Literary Love

I've spent the past 40 minutes browsing literary tattoos at Contrariwise. I want (almost) all of them. Maybe I can justify eating all the cookies in that it will give me more tattoo space. I couldn't choose a favorite, but this one, the infinite alphabet, seems to sum up everything:


I've already planned my next two tattoos. The first, on the side of my right wrist, will simply be "MD." Pure insider knowledge. The second will not, in fact, be "YEATS" even though that's technically what I said when I went to drop off the design, but it will be a Yeat's quote on my right hip. From "Who Will Go With Fergus Now," I want:

"All dishevelled wandering stars"

with a picture of the Amanda's Pennant (celithemas Amanda) dragonfly flanking the lettering. If only money were no object... although because it is, I save myself some skin for all the things I want permanently added in my 30's, 40's, etc. So, perhaps not a negative after all. I am still jealous of Stephanie's shoulder blade tattoo: "for life is not a paragraph / and death I think is no parenthesis." I gave that poem to my students earlier this year, and they were not nearly as receptive as I was when I first came across those lines in high school. They seem to find cummings "too confusing."
I remind myself to be patient.