new ink

been feeling kind of homesick lately, so in honor of my midwestern roots (that feel very distant here in the asia), i decided to commemorate missour-ah by committing it to my wrist. yup. i'm now the proud owner of a sweet new wrist tat.

some other peeps at my school had gone and gotten some shit done, and i liked the idea of getting a tattoo in china of my home in america. so a group of us went by the "parlor" after a late meal one night, only to find that the place had just closed. shee-it. so we made some tentative plans to come back the next day.

when i got up in the morning the next day i was in a weird, anti-social mood. which, at this point and with such frequency, isn't actually weird at all. i guess i just think it should feel weirder. anyhoo, i didn't call anyone, i just went by myself. so i navigated the bike lane of my busy main street and headed down to the shawnky chinese tattoo parlor.

speaking no english, i just showed the dude with an asymmetrical haircut, odd dress shoes and a koi fish tattooed on his left shoulder the outline of my state. he asked what it was in chinese. i responded in chinese and he smiled. then he tried to put it on upside down, unfamiliar with what's north, south, east and west on my blob of unfamiliar geography.

15 minutes later i walked out with a new tattoo. it was funny though, he was just starting to put together his "portfolio" so even my little crappy outline was photographed to be added to his book. also of note, the bottle of ink that just said "tattoo ink."

anyhoo, i like the idea of geography and of place and what that means physically/mentally/emotionally/blah blah blah. and to be reminded of where you come from. that in this whole planet of abstract shapes on skewed maps there is 1 little dot that you actually came from (aside from the 2 little dots who are your parents). but if people ask me about it, i just like to say "it's just my state." or as i've been saying in broken chinese "it's my place in america." which also sounds kind of poetic.