Tattoo Art, a Singular Unselfconsciousness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

I well recall how, in my teens, I confided to my mother that I was worried sick about an interview with a Careers Officer the next day because I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to be when I left school. She just shrugged and said, ‘Try being yourself and you won’t go far wrong.’ She was right, of course, but that was hard for me to admit at the time since I wasn’t being myself at all as being gay was still a criminal offence. I’ve tried to make up for it since.

Love it or hate it, most people are inclined to nurse a secret envy of tattoo art in so far as it conveys an unselfconsciousness that speaks for the self which, without meaning any offence, refuses to pussyfoot around or participate in the socio-cultural-religious sensibilities of others.

Every art form, of course, attempts the same.

TATTOO ART, A SINGULAR UNSELFCONSCIOUSNESS

I’m not the sort to strut

sidewalks alongside the latest

fashion clones

I prefer to speak plainly,  

no making a stab at diplomacy  

with awful clichés

I’ll not vote for the party

least likely to keep pre-election 

promises

I have never been in awe

of celebrities who love to preen

on camera

I like to call a spade a spade;

a ‘digging implement’ impresses

no one

I rejected religion years ago;

nature lends me a growing sense    

of spirituality

I love to share word patterns;  

as tattoos to the body, so art forms

to the mind

  

Copyright R. N. Taber 2011