The Light Shines in the Darkness (Courtney Thrash on the Tattooed Poets Project)

Our next tattooed poet is Courtney Thrash, who sent us this photo:

Courtney recounted how she got thi tattoo:

"Several years ago, I endured a very difficult period in my life. After the dust settled, I looked over my journals and poems from that period and found dozens of instances where I had written about the concepts of darkness and light and their interactions--with no conscious realization of the theme. Once it was part of my awareness, I could trace the thread of light (hope) shining in and bringing me out of many varieties of darkness throughout my life. The light, for me, has a very specific and religious meaning, which is why I chose this phrase from the gospel of John for my tattoo. In its entirety, the phrase reads: 'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.' My tattoo serves as both memorial and prescript, totem and prescience, proclamation of truth and victory and desperate prayer for times of doubt and defeat. The tattoo was done by Betty Rose (@bettyrosetattoos) of Rose & Crown Tattoos (@roseandcrowntattoos) in Austin, TX."

Courtney sent us the following poem, as well:

Mama, I Don’t Believe  

After C.D. Wright’s More Blues and the Abstract Truth  

  

The first freckles appear on his nose.  

Nerf gun bullets whistle like real ones;  

He shares a birthday   

with his great grandfather.  

And I say, No, he didn’t come  

to the party. He was already dead.  

  

In early April, we thumbed seeds into the dark;  

At the end of June he asks after  

the watermelon vine absent from the sill.  

I bury the tiny planter in the trash  

and say, I’m still learning  

how to grow things.  

  

Then there are the jokes he tells, doesn’t get,  

the legos in my purse, the toes  

rubbing holes through his shoes, moving  

notches up the door frame.  

He tells me his love in numbers.  

And I say, love is infinite  

or nothing.  

  

Well, mama, he says.  

What about apologies. What about waterfalls  

that never end. And superheroes who stop  

bad guys. Lock them up in vaults  

like your papers and Mamaw’s brooch,  

day. after. day. And will Papaw Richard  

come back to life with Jesus?  

He cries when a cartoon robot longs for love.  

And I say, a hornworm will strip a tomato plant  

Faster Than You Can Say Famine.

~ ~ ~

Courtney Thrash is a poet, writer, editor, mom, and wife in Austin, TX. You can find her work on the American Scholar’s poetry column “Next Line, Please,” in Rascal, and on Instagram @courtneythrashwriter, but mostly in notebooks and word documents.

Thanks to Courtney for sharing her tattoo with us on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2020 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

If you are reading this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.net and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Blakely's Verse

Back in the summer, I met Blakely on Wall Street and asked if I could snap a photo of her tattoo.

Initially, I just saw words, and then realized it was a Biblical verse. I'm not Christian, but I appreciate the overall sentiment and Blakely's commitment to filling an entire forearm with words:

The verse is "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

The citation is Philippians 4: 6-7, New International Version.

Blakely told me it is her favorite verse, as she suffers from anxiety, and this passage helps her cope with it.

There's an article in Huffington Post here about this specific verse and its meaningfulness in today's world.

She did not remember the name of the artist who did the work, but did note it was inked at Rose Tattoo Parlour (@rosetattooparlour) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Thanks to Blakely for sharing her verse with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2019 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Getting the Work Done - Samuel's Latin Leg

Last summer, I spotted a man walking down Broad Street and I had to ask him about his tattoo, I had never quite seen words done like this before:

The tattoo reads, in Latin:

"Amen, amen

dico vobis,

nisi granum

frumenti

cadens in

terram,

mortuum

fuerit, ipsum

solum manet:

si autum

mortuum

fuerit,

multum

frustum

affert"

Samuel, who had this tattoo on his leg, translated this as "Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless a seed falls into the earth and dies, it does alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit."

This is from the Latin Vulgate, the late 4th Century translation of the gospels that became the was the Catholic Church's official text for centuries. The passage hails from the Book of John, Chapter 12, Verse 24. 

Samuel said he interprets this to also mean, "Kill your desires, get the work done and you'll prosper," noting that the sentiment is "as Buddhist as it is Christian."

The font used is a customized version meant to recall Gothic lettering and told me this was inked at Spike-O-Matic Tattoo (@spikeomatictattoo) in Madison, Wisconsin.

Thanks to Samuel for sharing his cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2018 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Marta's Tattoo Sustains Her

Earlier this month, at the entrance of Battery Park, I met Marta, a tourist from Spain. I saw this tattoo on her back and asked if she would share it. She graciously agreed.

Marta described this as a "floral crown," with the phrase "I will sustain you" within.

Marta told me that the phrase is from the book of Isaiah, in the Bible:

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:4, New International Version)

Marta explained to me what this meant to her, but later wrote me and expressed in writing:

"... I was passing a really bad moment, and I was in bed for weeks. Then I realized that there was something more, something helping me. And this strength I was receiving through the love of my sister, parents and aunts should be the reason to start fighting again. I don't know how, but my faith appeared in this very moment. 

And this sentence from Isaiah has been essential in my life. These four words are what I say to my students when they feel upset or worried and these four words were the first said in my wedding." 

It's such a lovely tattoo and a beautiful story, and I am happy that Marta agreed to share the tattoo with us.

She credited Zeila Ruiz (@zeilaruiz) with the tattoo work at Italiano Diablo Tattoo (@italianodiablo) in Madrid, Spain.

Thanks to Marta for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2016 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Meredith's Key to Happiness

I met Meredith in Bowling Green park at the end of August and asked her about her tattoo:

Meredith elaborated on her tattoo:

"It represents Galatians 5:1, it's a scripture that says 'it is for freedom that Christ has set you free.' I have dealt with depression for most of my life and my faith has been a big part of my healing from that and so this tattoo represents finding freedom from that ... it's something I live with but it's not something that controls me anymore."

Meredith said she got this tattoo at Harlem Hype on 125th Street in Manhattan.

Thanks to Meredith for sharing this tattoo that is so important to her with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2015 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Christin's Exorcism

I was standing in front of Federal Hall, at the corner of Wall Street and Broad, when I noticed two women sitting nearby. One of them had an epic tattoo on her left thigh, so I introduced myself.

The woman’s name was Christin and she was visiting from Germany. Her friend, whose name I never
caught, was very helpful as an interpreter.

Check out the tattoo:

Christin explained that this is a passage, in Latin, from the Bible. More specifically, it refers to a section concerning exorcism, how, in her words, "the blood will drive out the evil and how everything will end up good.”

You can make out the word "Exorcism" behind the written text. The scratches and blood smears are part of the tattoo design.

The artist responsible is Emrah from Lausbub Tattoo in Heilbronn, Germany. When I reached out to him about the piece, he knew exactly which one I was talking about. "I love this tatt," he said, "but I never ever would do it again ... because of the tiny lettering."

When I asked Christin why she got this huge, intricate tattoo she said (through her friend, interpreting):

"There are two stories: One, the show Supernatural kind of got her on this idea. So that’s what brought her on the general idea of looking into what it is, reading up on it. And she kind of was fucking up her life a little bit much and so this was her way of putting her life back on the proper road so when she looks at it she knows I can’t go down that route again." 

Thanks to Christin for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

The Tattooed Poets Project - Heather Truett

Up next on the Tattooed Poets Project is Heather Truett, who sent us this photo:

along with a shot of the tattooist at work:

These may appear as three seemingly simple Hebrew letters, but there is more to this piece than just a Hebrew word, as Heather elaborates:

“The tattoo was a 27th birthday gift from a girlfriend I have known since I was 6 and she was 3. We went together. She got a Latin phrase in a beautiful script and I chose this. I had been planning a tattoo to somehow commemorate a friend who died and my own battle with depression. The verse in scripture that speaks most to me is Isaiah 61:3, which includes the phrase ‘beauty for ashes.’ The girl I wanted to commemorate, Natalie, also loved the verse. On a whim, I looked the verse up in Hebrew. I always love following a verse back to its origin and trying to understand what the words actually meant to the writer, rather than placing all trust in modern translation. When I realized the Hebrew word used to mean beauty in that verse actually means, ‘a crown of beauty,’ as in, a young girl being crowned queen and given honor and status in society, I knew I had my tattoo.

You see, every year, on the anniversary of the day Natalie died, her friends around the world don tiaras and wear them wherever they go. We paint our toenails purple, as she loved to do, and we drink a Diet Coke in her honor. There are other rituals, but these are the big three. To find the word ‘crown’ hidden there in my verse left me in tears, good tears, the kind of crying you do when someone at last understands exactly who you are and what you mean to them. I printed and double-checked the Hebrew lettering and took it with me to Devine Street Tattoo on a visit to Columbia, SC. It's not fancy, just three letters. But those three letters say so much to me every time I look at them. I placed the word on the inside of my left ankle, so when I look down or cross my legs, I see the tattoo. I don't mind showing it to other people, and I love telling how I chose it and why I got it, but it is, ultimately, for me and me alone, so I wanted it in a place easy for me to see."

By way of a poem, Heather submitted this:

My Brother is the Poem

My brother is the poem that exists,
still busily writing itself
in the hills of my hometown.
He leaves for work, welding
in leather and heat and without
a single complaint, because, hell!
He needs the job.
He strings out verse and stanza,
tripping over the meter
on seventy acres of God's creation.
Don't let them mine you too,
Big Brother.

It's with rhythm and flow that
he pays the bills and loves the wife and
suffers the pain of parenthood that stabs
with its cliche sword, double-edged.
Who knew? Who predicted
snowflakes and razorblades?
My brother, cigarette lit and smoke circling,
is the poetry falling
to earth, right there,
in Eastern Kentucky, while I
only call myself a poet, writing
in the air conditioned suburb, pretending
I got out, when I never did,

not really, anyhow.

Years pass and miles unroll like
so much butcher paper
down the holler, but my body still grows roots
back home, there, in Nat's Creek,
Daniel's Creek, Homer's trailer,
white house with black shutters,
minnow fishing, snake killing,
coal mining with the black lung,
family and the most Primitive of
Baptist churches, where
my soul gets fed, and only then
can the poem
grow branches.

~ ~ ~

 Heather Truett describes herself as “Hill-born, a coal miner's granddaughter, a brilliant spark of brain with a wee bit of crazy thrown in for good measure, a writer, a poet, a wife in the bizarre world of the church, wearer of silver tiaras and painter of purple toenails, I am me. I have published poetry, essays and articles in the past. My credits include: The Mom Egg, The Paintsville Herald, Jackson Free Press, Slugfest Ltd, Abundance Press, The Invitation Tupelo, Busy Parents Online, Mommy Tales, Just For Mom and other publications (more info available on my website, www.madamerubies.com). I am currently a homeschooling Mom to a special needs child and the wife of a youth minister in Tupelo, Mississippi. I have taught poetry workshops in schools and for the homeschool co-op we participate in each semester.” You can also check out her website, madamerubieswrites.blogspot.com.

Thanks to Heather for her contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission. 


If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.