The Tattooed Poets Project: Jennifer H. Fortin

Today's tattooed poet is Jennifer H. Fortin, who shared this dragonfly tattoo on her back:

Jennifer tells us how this tattoo came to life:

Tina at Inkers (since renamed to the unfortunate 'Inkers Dream Wizard Tattooing'), a tiny shop on back roads in suburban Maryland, did the deed. I drew the design myself & brought it to her to use the summer I was 18, one day after my internship at the local City Hall. I paid cash & tipped well. A friend was supposed to come & sit with me while Tina worked, but she flaked, so I was there alone, which I ended up liking better anyway. I chose the dragonfly because when I was a kid, my mom used to tell me that if you’re talking & a dragonfly is nearby, it will sew up your lips. I kind of knew this wasn't true, but I also kind of knew it was true, somewhere or somehow else, even if only in our warm minds. I wanted to preserve & represent that feeling of simultaneous, balanced belief & disbelief. 

The tattoo is getting a little fuzzy now, as it approaches 14 years old, & I keep meaning to get it touched up, but I also like to see it change. My best friend got married in a Catholic ceremony when we were 26, & I asked her & her fiancé whether they’d like me to wear a sweater in the church (our bridesmaid dresses were strapless). They said it was thoughtful of me to ask, but that there was no need. Karen later said that guests kept coming up to her & saying what nice posture I had. Part of the reason I got the tattoo was because I wasn't the type people would guess to have one. That I have one still surprises some people when it comes up, which I find amusing. Someone recently, at a rehearsal dinner for a different wedding, guessed correctly that I took French in high school, not Spanish, apparently from the way I comported myself. 'You can just tell,' she said."

Jennifer sent us this poem, which was first published in Forklift, Ohio:

Meditations on Distance in the Presence of Proximity

What I watch for in front of any painting is
whether or not & who will come between
us. I turn the applied over with my mind,
find glass & a bed in the place where glass
& a bed shouldn’t be. I invite anthropological
sensitivity. Maybe the painting is of two gravity
wells attached to a small, challenging body who began
reaching for you always ago. People: patience
with lovers. We know things heroes
& rulers don’t. We know that lowly powering
through the china shop & sticking our noses right in
the flowers, these are noticeable & worth touching
on. We react to ourselves as healthy organs,
on a reckless tour of each other’s normal

flora & fauna, each other’s bacterial.
When someone sees the transparent leaves
pattern on your wall, when someone volunteers
not to mind the drive, he is in fact protecting
the spectacular. I wrote it down the night
the first sibling died so as the next morning not
to forget—you told me that was indeed a way.
Surely others end up wishing us beds,
wishing us the coveted side-by-side, shaded,
surely there is intuition of the huge energy
required, the harm it would do to magnetics,
for us to climb out of this one, to interrupt
us as we face the same thing together,
standing particularly close. Lustrous
& factual as obituary.

~ ~ ~

Jennifer H. Fortin’s first book of poems is Mined Muzzle Velocity (Lowbrow Press, 2011). She lives in Upstate, New York. You can find her online at www.jenniferhfortin.com.

Thanks to Jennifer for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoos are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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Tattoosday Goes to Hawai'i - Sylvia's Back Piece

The one day in Hawai'i when I didn't take any tattoo pictures, I did pass out a few fliers. One I handed to a woman sitting in a chair at the Safeway Center on Kapahulu Avenue.

She had what appeared to be an incredible back piece, the top of which was visible to passers-by.

Sylvia later e-mailed me and shared a link to a site that featured a photo of the tattoo, along with an explanation of the piece. I have extracted it here for the enjoyment of the Tattoosday audience.

First, the tattoo:

Sylvia explains:

"My tattoo represents my ancestry...from the family of the 'Royal Hawai'ian Ole' (chanters of the Alii court), from the snowy mountains of Japan, the homeland of Portuguese Bean soup, and the inter-mix marriages of American Indians and Puerto Ricans. I believe the seven I have on my back describe who I am the best. Most locals have meaning for their tattoos but we also have people like Lindsay who just go with their flow. Many families have several signs that make up their families even as far as the Scottish Clan "Duncan" like me..."

What's wonderful about this tattoo to me is that Sylvia has incorporated so many cultures and motifs into the design which, as she acknowledges, is based on the wonderful mix of heritage and ancestry that comprises her background. This is very typical of people who live in Hawai'i, which is host to such an explosion of multicultural intermingling.

I love how the honu/sea turtle brings all of the elements together. The eagle, dragonfly, bear paw, wolf, buffalo, and shark all join to provide a rich tapestry of images that each speak to a different aspect of her heritage.

Sylvia's tattoo was inked by Joseph Garcia, Trigga Happy Tattoo in Waipahu. Eagle, Dragonfly, Bear Paw, Turtle, Wolf, Buffalo, and Shark.

Thanks to Sylvia for responding to me initially and for sharing her tattoo via her post here. We here at Tattoosday appreciate your contribution!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Lea Banks

Today's tattooed poet is Lea Banks.

Lea sent along several photos of her work, so let's not waste any time checking out her ink.

Descriptions from Lea follow each photo.

"Vita Nuova" was the first tattoo celebrating my divorce, my new life. I was deep into Dante, especially the Purgatorio. I had read three translations and was taking a break when someone gave me La Vita Nuova. The thirty poems fascinated me --- they were so personal, an autobiographical narrative in which Dante wove a web of romance and emotion. Such spiritual inspiration was integral at that time! I was interspersing Dante with Emily Dickinson then and I had the same artist at Mom’s Tattoo Studio in Keene, NH do the tattoo on my right shoulder. You know … “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” I still felt I was contained lightning from the wreckage of my marriage; wanting to tell the truth in my poetry but having a hard time with it. So this was the design I came up with. I’m actually thinking of having the lightning go outside the circle … I am NOT contained anymore!

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant

Emily Dickinson

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant---
Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind---

...Done in 2004, [this tattoo] was my version of a design from the Book of Kells, an Irish manuscript containing the Four Gospels. My daughter and I were visiting England and were staying at a B&B in Glastonbury. One day, she decided to climb the green hill of the Tor, crowned with the tower dominating the town and the surrounding landscape. I had to sit it out because my foot was giving me trouble. My foot at that time had undergone four surgeries. I picked up a book showing illustrations from the Book of Kells. I dreamt of this dragonfly tattoo on the plane ride back and took my vision to a tattoo artist at Blackbear Tattoo & Jewelery Company in Brattleboro, VT. I was very pleased with the result: three dragonflies facing different directions signifying healing movement for my foot. Although I had a fifth surgery, I started walking again and even running. I promised Sarah that we’d return and climb the Tor together.

And my personal favorite...

The fourth tattoo on my left bicep, done by Pygmalion’s Tattoo in Greenfield, MA, is a quote by William Carlos Williams, “Nothing whips my blood like verse.” I had it done right before the AWP conference in Chicago and bore it proudly. The whip that winds throughout the quote was a flourish done by the artist. I ran into a friend who was a W.C. Williams scholar and he said he had never heard it attributed it to Williams! I swear it was in a book or on the web and if anyone can tell me different, please do.

Good news, Lea, I found reference to it in The Selected Letters of William Carlos Williams (1957).

Please be sure to check out one of Lea's poems over on BillyBlog here.

Lea Banks lives in Western Massachusetts. She is the author of the chapbook All of Me, (Booksmyth Press, 2008). She was a finalist for The Pavel Srut Fellowship in Prague and had two poems nominated for the 2009 Pushcart Prize. Banks is the founder of the nationally-known Collected Poets Series in Shelburne Falls, MA and editor of Oscillation: Poetry in Motion. She was the former poetry editor of The Equinox and editorial assistant for the Marlboro Review. She attended New England College’s MFA program, facilitated stroke survivors’ writing workshops, and is a full-time poet, community organizer, freelance editor and writer. Banks has published in several journals including Poetry Northwest, Slipstream, Diner, and American Poetry Journal. See more here: www.leabanks.com.

Thanks again to Lea for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!