***POST YOUR TATTOO'S HERE***

[abby]

Abby! Is that your tattoo?? the writing is beautiful! is one part on the upper arm and the rest on the lower?

You pictured it perfectly, Lizzy : ) I had it done last May.

[lizzytysh]

LAST May or this May?? I would have loved to have seen it in Vegas!

[Cate]

such a nice verse and so pretty Abby.
The script is very elegant.

[Geoffrey]

Tattoos are not an artform of which I approve, but I am getting used to them. It is like when a jagged piece of tooth breaks from a molar, the tongue becomes sore from involuntarily searching out the new cavity. After about three days one's tongue becomes familiar with the broken enamel in its territory, ceases its perpetual investigation and the soreness disappears. But I do not like them. Indeed I like not even the word 'tattoo'. Too jagged as it hits one's inner drum. Cannot be compared with 'primrose' or 'voluptious'; lovely words that feel good as they form in the mouth, look good as they take shape on the page. "There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in" is all right when spoken, but when written lays itself open to scrutiny. A lack of consistency becomes glaringly apparent. The second line opens with what writers call a 'contraction' (that's = that is) yet the first line does not. The reason has nothing to do with formal versus informal, the apostrophe is used in order to maintain syntax. Nothing grammatically incorrect about it, so please do not misunderstand. One can kiss a stranger without standing underneath mistletoe, it is just that certain standards are expected.

[brightnow]

Tattoos are not an artform of which I approve, but I am getting used to them. It is like when a jagged piece of tooth breaks from a molar, the tongue becomes sore from involuntarily searching out the new cavity. After about three days one's tongue becomes familiar with the broken enamel in its territory, ceases its perpetual investigation and the soreness disappears. But I do not like them. Indeed I like not even the word 'tattoo'. Too jagged as it hits one's inner drum. Cannot be compared with 'primrose' or 'voluptious'; lovely words that feel good as they form in the mouth, look good as they take shape on the page. "There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in" is all right when spoken, but when written lays itself open to scrutiny. A lack of consistency becomes glaringly apparent. The second line opens with what writers call a 'contraction' (that's = that is) yet the first line does not. The reason has nothing to do with formal versus informal, the apostrophe is used in order to maintain syntax. Nothing grammatically incorrect about it, so please do not misunderstand. One can kiss a stranger without standing underneath mistletoe, it is just that certain standards are expected.

Oh dear Geoffrey, I am perplexed as to why you have chosen to rip apart one of the most dazzling structures in contemporary poetry. The "inconsistent" contraction is simply a servant to the demanding mistress known as "meter", and the two lines are filled with wonders; you might notice how the word EVERYTHING shines in its nobility, being a three-syllable word among a herd of one-syllable sheep, and that is just one example.

[Cate]

only a guess, but I suspect that it’s because he is fond of Abby and making Geoffrey like conversation … which is nice to see.

Myself I like the word tattoo because it sounds like tatoonie from the first star wars and is fun to say. Voluptuous is a great word, as is luscious – love the delightfully round vowel sounds mixed the sh/s sounds that feel like a breeze or an exhale.

Regardless of words though, as somebody who likes tatoo's/ body art, I think Abby’s are quite good (I’m partial to the cherry blossom).

[Geoffrey]

Brightnow wrote:
>Oh dear Geoffrey, I am perplexed as to why you have chosen to rip apart one of the most dazzling structures in contemporary poetry. The "inconsistent" contraction is simply a servant to the demanding mistress known as "meter", and the two lines are filled with wonders; you might notice how the word EVERYTHING shines in its nobility, being a three-syllable word among a herd of one-syllable sheep, and that is just one example.


Well, strictly speaking the word 'everything' actually has four syllables (ev-er-y-thing), though lazy speech reduces the number to three (ev-ry-thing). I believe Leonard uses the latter not out of laziness, but because he wishes to appeal to the lower classes, to society's uneducated, ineloquent riff-raff. The upper classes purchase virtually no CDs, and certainly have very little interest in pop or rock. They much prefer to spend money on tickets at music halls, at opera houses - or ballet. Middle class people do buy an occasional CD, though mostly of classical music, such as Schubert or Brahms. If Leonard is to sell his product, he has to shrewdly descend to the level of the tattooed CD-buying public and pretend to be one of them - as he did with "Ain't no cure for love".
------------------------------------
Cate wrote:
>Only a guess, but I suspect that it's because he is fond of Abby and making Geoffrey-like conversation … which is nice to see.
>
>Myself I like the word tattoo because it sounds like tatoonie from the first star wars and is fun to say. Voluptuous is a great word, as is luscious - love the delightfully round vowel sounds mixed the sh/s sounds that feel like a breeze or an exhale.
>
>Regardless of words though, as somebody who likes tatoos/body art, I think Abby's are quite good (I'm partial to the cherry blossom).


The word 'tattoo' is not amongst the nicest in the English language. Far too staccato. Does not flow softly over the lips like a lover's gentle whisper as he engages in his art of seduction. His reassuring breath in her ear as she climbs to the height of her pleasure carries only the warmest and most beautiful of words, sounds that will encourage her to surrender to the luscious feelings growing deep within her body, tilt her over the edge into uncontrollable spasms of delight. Were he to utter the word 'tattoo' at the height of her abandonment it would be like dropping an ice-cube between her cleavage.

[abby]

It was May of this year, so after Las Vegas-

[lizzytysh]

Okay, well... next time I see you, Abby, I'll see it.
Looking forward to it.

[Geoffrey]

Okay, well... next time I see you, Abby, I'll see it.
Looking forward to it.

well, i'm never going to have a tattoo, not ever - and leonard isn't either. we're just not doing it.

[abby]

Okay, well... next time I see you, Abby, I'll see it.
Looking forward to it.

well, i'm never going to have a tattoo, not ever - and leonard isn't either. we're just not doing it.

Leonard seems like the kind of guy who might like to be buried with his family, and tattoos would keep him from that, yes? Me, I've had a vault reserved for my ashes since I was a teenager, right alongside my mom's and my my maternal grandparents', but it's my mother's family, and they're not Jews, and the cemetery that houses their ashes is secular. I'm a half Jew from my dad's side. I mostly want to sell the space and have my ashes scattered somewhere, in some body of water.

There is a little piece of me, though, that feels a pull to my vault, to keeping my ashes with my family's. It's probably not far from the little part that wishes I had an unmodified body, no holes in my earlobes, no tattoos, no jewelry, no makeup, but scars don't fall along these lines, no way. I gave myself my first tattoo when I was 13 or 14, stick and poke, prison style. The first tattoo I had done professionally, I was 18, was the Hallelujah on my back- it was supposed to be something sad or foreboding for a lover to see, but it never really worked that way. It was supposed to say, look at me, I'm too far gone.

I've always been a little too far gone, just wired that way.

That little wish for the plainest body disappears, though, when I see beautiful tattoos on women who also seem a little too far gone. I like being a part of that club : ) I'm not much for tattoos on men, though- they're men, you're a man, Geoffrey. Women with tattoos have an edge, an antidote to the image of woman as nurturer. It's like men with some outward sign of tenderness- they evoke similar feelings in me- men showing themselves tenderer than tough, maybe with a baby wrapped against their bodies. Defying gender roles, I guess.

xxoo

[lazariuk]

Well done Abby.

[imaginary friend]

Eloquently expressed Abby.

...And speaking of words, the ones you use always seem to be well-crafted and chosen with care.

Your tattoos are beautifully crafted too, especially the Anthem words. The way the script follows the curve of your arm and the deep spacing between the lines is... well, quite luscious

[lizzytysh]

Impressive and, as already said, eloquent, as well as insightful, with much depth and incisive perspective... all making them who you are, Abby. I enjoyed reading your reasons and followed your logic and reasoning as I went.

[Geoffrey]

Well done Abby.

yes well done indeed. but the thing is that john and me have always been best friends, for ages, it's just been me and him we did everything went everywhere together, like brothers. but just recently another guy has joined us, jostein his name is, so there's three of us now, a triangle sort of. we all get on well together, but i still think of john as my best friend. the trouble is he regards jostein as his best friend, so the dynamics have changed a bit. and a few days ago jostein said i am his best friend, he has said it more than once in fact, but never when john is around. we're not sucking each others' dicks or anything like that, and i don't think there's any jealousy going around - it's just that i've noticed that when you are with two other people there's always one that you like more than the other. sometimes it's just a fraction more, even though it is usually a lot more. maybe that's why marriages often go downhill after the kid is born, because the chances of the love being divided 50/50 are as remote as seeing jehovas witnesses in church to celebrate christmas. it's like when you get married, the balance of power is tilted as soon as you get back home and close the door; one of you is more dominant than the other. could be just very slightly, but that tiny margin can only grow, become a wedge, because there is not a compromise to every marital problem, sometimes the answer is just a yes or a no. but when me john and jostein were walking through the shopping centre this is what happened: first jostein met somebody he knew and we stopped up while they chatted for a minute or two. then john met somebody he knew and we had to stop up again. this put me in a spot because i felt that is i didn't meet anybody i knew then it would look like they were more well-known and popular than me, they might think that i was inferior to them. i had to wave to a couple of strangers in one shop we passed and pretended i knew them, but i don't like being forced to lie like that. i don't think it's working really with three of us because of the rivalry element. why does jostein have to keep telling me i am his best friend, it's like when you say to a fatally wounded soldier "don't worry, help is on the way" even when you know he's going to be dead in a couple of minutes. i used to do handsprings for john, i helped him, shouldered the blame when he went to the toilet in that house that was for sale even. we were looking at a house that had come on the market, there were loads of prospective buyers there, even though john and me didn't have any plans to buy it we just wanted to see what it was like. the estate agent was welcoming all the newcomers in at the entrance while we wandered around upstairs. then john went into the toilet and locked the door. after a minute or two i heard the water flush from the cistern so i guessed he had done his business in there. anyway, as he opened the door and came out, so did the smell he had made. then he went into the front bedroom just as the estate agent came upstairs with a lady to show her around. it was so embarrassing, he didn't say anything to me, and he didn't have say anything either because the look he gave me and his body language said it all. he thought it was me who had done it. i can't imagine jostein just standing there taking the blame like i did. but the worst thing of all is - sorry i have to go now.