The article in class this week that had the biggest effect on me was, without a doubt the one about September 11th Tattoos. Tattoos are a vibrant and of course, permanent form of art, and one not to be taken lightly. As i said in class, They are snapshots of your identity which preserve that part of you for as long as you've skin on your bones.
The tattoos discussed in the article are all in one particular vein; patriotism and unity in the face of national disaster. The only qualm i have about these sorts of tattoos is that the sentiments they support apparently could only be evoked by such a great loss. In an ideal world i suppose we could feel this close and similar all the time.
I like you "snapshots of identity" bit. For better or for worse, people are always changing. It is nice to be able to reflect back on the pass to see what held importance at that time in a person's life. I have friends with shark, rose, star, skull, sqiggle, lizard, names (etc) tattoos. I am really excited for the day when my friend and I are in retirement homes having wheelchair races having aids yell at us and seeing her giant skull and cross bone tattoo 60 years from now. :)
ReplyDeleteI like how you explained that too! One of my friends is really into vision boards i even made one with her one time and put all pictures of things I want and care about having in my life! That same friend also loves tattoos and she decided she wanted to get a sleave down her arm and make that into something like a vision board and just keep adding onto it over time. I think that will kind of have the same effect of "Snapshots of identity" because in the long run she can look back and see the things she wanted when she first got those tattoos to then the more recent things in her life that she wants.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your closing statement. Although these tattoos probably mean a lot to these people and they show that this tragedy will never be forgotten, it is sad to realize that it took an event of this magnitude to bring out this sense of patriotism. There are a couple of the tattoos that may have just had add-ons after 9/11(probably the ones with the flags), but in the same aspect I agree that it should not take a tragedy to unite a nation.
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