An Octopus Ate My Leg
Posted: March 18th, 2007 | Author: Sam | Filed under: Blog Posts, Tattooing |
Above, albeit blurry, you can see the outline of the last tattoo that I’ll be getting for a while. Although large - most of my lower right leg will disappear behind the ink by the time the coloring is finished - it isn’t a particularly complex thing. It is a simple octopus.
Almost all of my other tattoos, I’d like to believe, have some sort of meaning. But I feel like I’m getting older, and those meanings? I don’t owe them to anybody. I happen to like getting tattooed, and I happen to like octopi (or octopuses, or octopodes, if you’re into that sort of thing). Combining these two pleasures just makes sense to me.
The other plus of my recent tattooing binge - in three months, I’ve gone from three to six - is going to a place that I actually like. Morgantown’s Wild Zero Studios is good for me, because it caters to a different crowd than most parlors. Namely, the redneck/biker quotient is low. I certainly don’t object to rednecks/bikers necessarily, but they aren’t my people, and I’m not theirs. Better that I can get my work done without listening to Bad Company rock it out for the 458th time.
By the time the octopus is done, I think that I will have reached my limit in the short term. Most of my available real estate will be covered: one on my chest, one taking up the top two-thirds of my back, and three on my shoulders/upper arms. I could keep cramming work in there, but I have to wonder what the point would be. Which isn’t to say that I’d swear off tattooing forever. I took a three year break for somebody else, and then found myself back in a parlor. The chances I eventually go back are obviously high.
hmmm, perhaps the next time i’m in town i’ll go get my second one at wild zero.
I love octopi as well, and in fact, thought myself of tatting one on. But, I think Ive come to the realization that Ill never be fully decisive about what to put on my body and where - other than the battleship on my tatas, which you thanfully suggested.
Mostly I just wanted to say I love octopi…and whales, but I dont think a whale tattoo would be all that interesting. Sad face.
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I have many tattoos, ranging from the physical evidence of a bad decision (the kanji tramp stamp) to a complete reproduction of a Salvador Dali painting on my right inner forearm, and each one has meant something to me (the tramp stamp meant I was trampy.) As I get older, the meaning isn’t as important. I don’t really need to wear a metaphor, and it could be that I’m finally at an age where I feel like I carry enough meaning of my own without feeling compelled to add to it.
That said, I have always wanted an octopus on the ball of my shoulder, spreading over my shoulderblade and clavicle. I had a pet octopus for years; his name was Bad Bad Leroy Brown and I loved him, as much as you can love a thing that is entirely asocial and intimidatingly smart. I taught him tricks. I’d put my hand in his tank and he’d give me a beak job. he died when my roommates startled him with a laser pointer and he inked his tank and suffocated. (I wasn’t there for the rescue.) And I said all of that to say that, your tattoo may lack any deeper spiritual significance for you, but not to me.
Enjoy it.