symbolic 34: show, no telling
I'm not inked. As a rite of passage, I burned an ankh into the back of my left hand on my 21st birthday. I used a fork and a votive candle, and it took awhile to get right. If the light is good, I can see the mark on my hand now. The scar which has no care of the light is on the underside of my left forearm. It's a two inch mark from where I sliced myself with a hand saw when I was 12 or 13. The mountain ridge running across the top of my right foot is the reminder of the surgery it took to find the toothpick which had been lost in my flipper. (Bare feet, quarter-inch pile carpeting, toothpicks: bad combination, let me tell you.) These are the marks I have on my skin.
I worry that a tattoo will fall into the same category: a reminder of rushed action. I point to my flesh and say, "Look, this is where a saw slipped." Or, "This is where I was toppled by a sliver of wood." I don't want to have that same reaction to the ink which has been inscribed into my skin. They are powerful symbols -- tattoos. They tell stories about you that don't require you to speak. They are micro bursts of information. Stamps of personality.
I want to know about your initiation. Go the forum and post me a picture of your first tattoo. Flash me with the first symbol that you had speak for you.
And later you can tell me why.
writing
This is a reasonably comprehensive list of my published work, both virtual and physical.
THE MISFIT LIBRARY
I am Nine of Thirteen, one of the members of the Misfit Library, a writing collective which puts out a quarterly journal of our respective work. We are scattered across the globe and determined to change the face of the planet one story at a time. The link above will take you to Misfit Central where you can acquire copies of the journal as well as read exclusive online material.
SYMBOLIC
I wrote a column for OPi8.com's Transmit blogs: journals of the new dark underground. SYMBOLIC tracked the novel I was working on, referencing the process and the research materials which mad up the backbone of the work. In addition, SYMBOLIC busied itself with ruminations and considerations on the nature of language and communication. And a wee bit of mythology. The first 100 entries of SYMBOLIC can be found here on this site as well as at OPi8.com.
LITERARY REPRESENTATION
I am represented by Scribe Agency as my literary agents. Please contact these gentleman if you have any queries about my work.