The Skin Gallery and the Art of wearing your art on your sleeve.

I have been writing a tonne lately.  I have been making lots of connections which have opened my creative self and, as it happens, I also booked another tattoo this weekend with my guy, Alex Rousey.  When I shared this info with a friend, the reflection back was:  “Another tattoo?  See what happens when your creativity gets a kick in the pants!” 

My reply was: "I am a walking art gallery."

That thought caused me to pause and think about that statement which, to be honest, was flippant to begin with, and actually revealed how I really feel about my skin and, maybe even my body... my whole image; my style. 

Some people in my life have made observations about why people get tattoos.  Some people have said it is because I am in extreme emotional pain and that is how I express my pain.

Maybe.  I used to be a cutter.

If that is the case, then, I choose these colourful scars.  They are an album of my healing.  Each one represents a step in my journey toward myself.  And, honestly, I have never really reflected on why I love tattoos or why I love getting tattoos.  I just love them.  I think they are beautiful.  I am sure that people who collect piercings feel the same way.

Bod Mods are about decoration and an aesthetic sense of self in which you live art because you are art.  We are all art works.  Art of metamorphosis.  We create a life and it sways and blurs and folds into the lives of others which sways and blurs and folds into ours.  Our lives are lived parallel to and in conjunction with the lives of others – our art is part of the art of others.  A kaleidoscope of experience.  A mandala of existence – the gift of living with and around other people.

Sometimes those connections are represented in art on our skin. 

I have often wondered if that is why people started decorating themselves. 

I know that many indigenous peoples have written family histories on the skin of their people to preserve family stories of legitimacy and the connections of one clan to another.  The shapes and designs passed the origin stories of family on from generation to generation.  It started with the collective history and, as a person aged, the story was added to with the tales of his or her own story.  And, in some cultures, the songs and dances which accompany the story would be passed on as well. 

Y’know, if I look at my art, I could say that each piece represents a step in my story on my life’s path.  And, if I followed that tradition, I know I could pair those pieces with songs, dances, and stories, too.  Actually, I named this blog after a line in a poem which found its way into becoming a tattoo.

Looks like a new series is being born – one in which I will share the story of my art on my skin.

The complication is how to photograph them all.

I have one on my back.

 I’ll need help.