Thursday 26 May 2011

Fresh ink and boat shows

Greetings Earthlings! I was thinking last night about how we present ourselves to the world and the little quirks and strokes of obstinance that make us strive to look a certain way.
For example, I saw a photo yesterday of the freshly inked tattoo I'd designed for the lovely John Ashdjian and had a real pang that I can't yet have another tattoo myself.  With all my now ever-present allergy issues god knows what would happen and I don't like the idea of being left with something permanent that my body has physically tried to reject... methinks the end picture would be distorted to say the least!


John's new tattoo, my design from his idea.

But I do love my tattoos. For the most part you're unlikely to ever see them these days. You may see the one on the top of my right foot, with some of the winding ivy from the wedding invitation I designed for mine and Mr W's big day, but you're unlikely to notice the huge butterfly backpiece that wraps accross the top of each shoulder and spreads down to the middle of my back, and the myriad of other pieces (all designed by me, cept my first one, a dragon in the middle!) that cover the rest of my back and wrap around my waist.
I'm kind of happy about that!  I'm in no way embarrassed or ashamed by them, but they feel like my little secret. Specially now I always look rough because I'm not so well.  There's more to me than meets the eye.
I know you know what I mean.



Makes you wonder what other people have lurking though! I remember being in hospital one time and this really clean cut consultant leant me forward to listen through my back and his comment being "gosh, that's expensive" as apposed to the standard "ooh that must have hurt" or similar. For him to know that what I have is expensive left me with a sneaking suspicion about what may have been lurking under his crisp white shirt!

It seems that quite a lot of boaters (die hard liveaboards, not weekenders) have bodyart.  I think there's something about the way you can't stress out on the water in the same way you do in a house that makes stuff ok, and makes you more open to ideas and ways of expressing them.  I'm no hippy, don't get me wrong. I work, I pay my bills, I wash (myself and my clothes!!), and am a fairly proactive member of society, but when I get home to Zulu, I don't want to leave and I take a more relaxed view of things. It takes something really good to winkle me out of my stretch of riverbank.  It's certainly given me the whatever it was I needed to start being creative again. 

So this weekend something is occurring that is exciting enough to us boaty types to warrant getting in the car and driving for bloomin ages.  It's the Crick Boat Show this weekend!! Loads of boats and boaters will get together for boaty-flavoured shopping and entertainment and I can't wait!

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