Martin is done. My daughter added a Gary to his name, so he is now Gary Martin. (She likes Spongebob’s pet snail, and frankly, so do I.) What else can be said. Eric Carlson at Wild Zero did unbelievable work. If you’re ever needing a tattoo in Morgantown, go there. Don’t even think about the other place.
Of course, I swore that I’d be done after this, that I would be absolutely finished. But…come on.
I can’t keep writing about the tattooing process. So instead, a story:
Look, it isn’t like I’m going to deny my own geeky tendencies. I watch terrible movies endlessly. I love playing sudoku. I may or may not still watch cartoons. I play video games. I certainly do things that any right thinking person would look at and consider to be very geek.
Still, when I have the opportunity to separate myself from the hardcore geeks, I’m going to take advantage of it. Because, honestly, I don’t want to be even tangentially associated with these people.
The Scene: Gamestop, by Target
The Performers: Brad (Assistant Manager), Other Geek, Me (Listening In)
Brad: So this woman calls wanting to return a game…
Other Geek: *nodding*
Brad: She say’s it’s damaged. She says that she’s been playing nonstop for 21 days and that the disc is damaged.
Other Geek: *nodding*
Brad: She says she’s played to a point where the disc will no longer play. I told her the warranty on used games only lasts for seven days.
Other Geek: *nodding*
Brad: She says that isn’t fair, she says “How was I supposed to know that the disc wouldn’t work if I only discovered it AFTER reaching a certain point in the game?”
Me, Thinking: That is a very reasonable question.
Other Geek: *nodding*
Brad: I didn’t even want to ask her.
Other Geek: *nodding*
Brad: But I did. I said, what game is it?
Other Geek: *nodding*
Brad: Get this. She said, God of War. As if it would take anyone could play for 21 days straight and not beat that game. A reasonable person would have it beaten in 4 days of straight playing.
Other Geek: Not everybody plays as many video games as you do.
Me: *choking on the story, walking out of the store shocked*
Needless to say, I don’t think Brad offered the woman an exchange. If only she’d been a better gamer…
Martin continues to be revealed on my leg. Eric spent another two hours last Thursday working on Martin’s head. This week I’ll sit for more work on the tentacles and the water. At some point, the other side will be begun.
My attitudes about tattooing keep changing. I once wrote that I liked the process of getting tattooed, and this is very true, but there is something about the finality of the work that I like too. A finished tattoo is evidence of accomplishment.
When I was in college, before the tattooing started, I ate very hot Indian food in Amherst. Unfortunately, the place where I used to eat has been overtaken by a coffee shop. The process of eating hot food was like a meditation. It took time and energy and focus to finish a plate of blazing food. I had to gather myself to properly approach the meal. Seeing the empty dish was evidence of an accomplishment. Here I had done something that few other people had.
Tattooing creates the same feeling. Seeing this image appear on my leg is a sign of accomplishment, evidence that I sat through the pain (although it really isn’t that painful, particularly on the leg). For some reason, I crave accomplishment in this form.
This post is too long.
Martin, my leg’s new octopus, is now surrounded by a nice water. Eric at Wild Zero is doing a ridiculously good job. The next step is bringing the water up to the bottom of my knee, coloring Martin in, and then, as I wrote before, planning for the other side of my leg.
I was talking to Eric the other day, and he was talking about Grime Monster, an artist out of San Francisco. Apparently, he maintains both very high standards and very high expectations of others. One of his criticisms is that, until you’ve walked around with visible tattooing, you can’t imagine what the experience is like.
Unlike the rest of my work, my leg is on regular display. I suppose I’ll be finding out about the rightness of his criticism.
…Friggin Enormous Squid last species left to be captured.
But seriously, I love the tentacled creatures: jellyfish, nautilus, octopus, and of course, squid. So what’s to make of this fascinating announcement of fishermen capturing a 990 pound Colossal Squid?
I think interest is the word. There is a vast undersea world about which we as humans know little - these tentacled monsters are some of the biggest animals on Earth, and yet are rarely ever seen, much less understood.
Photo courtesy of Giant Ginkgo, whose photos absolutely deserve your time and attention.