The Tattooed Poets Project: Jacqui Morton

Today's tattooed poet is Jacqui Morton, who shares these three dandelion seeds:

Jacqui explains:

"My tattoo was done at Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo in Jamaica Plain, MA, by Melissa Baker. I’ll never forget Melissa’s voice or the way she let me hug her when she finished. She took great care in listening to what I was looking for and showing me a drawing. I had this in mind but when she put it on paper it all made sense. It’s my first tattoo, and I got at age 38, three years after I lost a baby. I now have two sons. This tattoo helps me keep that baby girl here with them --- my three little seeds, all floating in their own direction."

This poem Jacqui sent ties in with the tattoo:

For Jennifer

This poem is for Jennifer

because she called

when the midwife

didn’t, past five on Friday.

For Jennifer because

later, after the results

and the tears, and after

the cupcakes shielded

from tears were eaten

at a second birthday party

which must have

happened at my house, 

she helped me

make the appointment.

For Jennifer because

she said she would send

her sister to that doctor.

For her, because

she said the baby is a girl

instead of the words

I hoped to hear later:

It’s a girl.

This poem is for Jennifer

because it is her job to call

people like me with results

like those.

 - Jacqui Morton, 2012

~ ~ ~

Jacqui adds, "I terminated my pregnancy after a really sad diagnosis. Jennifer was the genetic counselor. This poem was previously published in my chapbook, Turning Cozy Dark.

Jacqui Morton's poems and essays have appeared in places such as Drunk Monkeys, The Mom Egg Review, the Guardian, Salon, Role Reboot, and The Rumpus. She is the author of a baby book of poems and is working on a memoir. Jacqui is a doula and freelance writer in Massachusetts, and is the managing editor for The Citron Review. Visit her on Twitter or at jacquimorton.com

The Tattooed Poets Project: Susan Sweetland Garay

 Our second tattooed poet today is Susan Sweetland Garay:

Here's a closer look:

Susan elaborates:

"The tattoo I would like to share is one I got recently. It has a Celtic knot modified to symbolize a mother and child. It also has California poppies, a fern, a red clover, a dandelion (the wisher part) and a thistle.

It is all to symbolize motherhood and how becoming a mother has really changed the say I see myself and who I am. The flowers all have meaning too, my mother is from California, and those orange poppies are all over where I live (rural Oregon), the fern is also just a representation of where I am from and where my daughter will grow up. The clover is because the red clover only bloom for a couple of weeks in the spring, and they were in bloom when she was born, I remember focusing on them during the drive to the hospital.  The dandelion is because wishes for me will be different now, since I want things more for her then for myself. The thistle is also a representation of where we live. The spiral is also sort of about the perfection of nature, and how amazing it is what nature (and a woman's body) can do." 

She credits artist Cassidy at Black Rose Tattoo at Solstice Body Arts in Dundee, Oregon, with this crisp and colorful work.

Susan sent us the following poem, which was first published in The Zoomoozophone Review Issue 3 in October 2014.

night breeze

I feel the breeze through
the bedroom window
on a summer night
as I sit with my baby
at my breast,

it’s the end of summer
and finally the coyotes
have returned.

their song comes through
the open window and in the
odd hours of the early morning
they keep me company
in the quiet and the dark.

The cool comes on quickly and
autumn makes herself known
as the warmth of the day
arrives later and later.

Daylight makes lessons learned
in the dark harder to remember.

There is a feeling of relief
and then dismay
when I realize that
I am still myself,
despite the drastic
changes to my
definition.

Stretch marks,
like any other scar,
are a reminder
of where I’ve been
a record on my body
of each destination
and crash.
A mind may forget
but the body remembers.

It is written on my bones
and this body will find a way.

In a time of crisis
I strain to remember
what coyote taught me
about the lighthearted
nature of the universe-
I say it over and over again
in my head, hoping repetition
will make it stick.

Her mouth curves into a wide grin
around my nipple and
again I am in love.

~ ~ ~

Born and raised in Portland Oregon, Susan Sweetland Garay first played among the moss and pines, then the majestic Rocky Mountains, the rolling hills of the Ohio Appalachians and now the lovely vineyards of the Willamette Valley with her husband and daughter. She enjoys writing, growing plants and making art. She has had poetry and photography published in a variety of journals, on line and in print. She was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2014.  Her first full length poetry collection, ApproximateTuesday, was published in 2013.  She is a founding editor of The Blue Hour Literary Magazine and Press.  More of her work can be found at susansweetlandgaray.wordpress.com. 

Thanks to Susan for sharing her work with us here on the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2015 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. 

Judith and Her Igel (Hedgehog)

Earlier this month, I disembarked a Citibike at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan and spotted a tattooed woman sitting on the steps of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House behind me.

Her name was Judith and she was visiting from Austria.

She had this cool tattoo on her inner wrist:

Judith spoke little English, but I did manage to identify this creature that she called an Igel as a hedgehog. She said a friend of hers who had taken up tattooing as a hobby did the work on her. He also had done significantly more work on her upper arm:

I'm not sure what this piece is all about, but I do see the maple leaves and dandelions.

Judith, I thank you for sharing your work with us here on Tattoosday! Danke schön!

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.

Lynsey, With a Wolf in the Garden

I met Lynsey last week outside of  Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan. She shared this interesting tattoo:

Wrapping around her lower leg, this tattoo is credited to Jared Hayes, an artist in Salt Lake City.

Lynsey explained, “We did a collaborative effort on it – it’s original – so, it was based off of a song I have a particular fondness for and we kinda built it off that.”

"What song?" I asked.

"Wolves in the Garden" by The Deadly Syndrome. Here's the song in an unofficial video:

The whole piece took about nine hours to complete.

Thanks to Lynsey for sharing this cool 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.

Erin's Tattoos for Loss and Healing

Back in Tattoosday's infancy, when it was a weekly feature over at BillyBlog, I neglected to ask someone about their tattoo, and it had continued to nag at me, months later.

I had just come back from taking pictures of James's tattoos (here) and stopped in Rite-Aid for something. Ahead of me in line, a woman had an incredible black and grey piece that was complex and, I was sure, had great meaning.

But I had yet to successfully get pictures from someone that I didn't know previously, although I did manage to break the barrier and compliment her on the work, which to me was a small
victory in itself.

So, last Saturday, I was walking down my block when two women passed me and there it was, there she was, and this time, after 9 months of talking ink with complete strangers, I had no problem asking what this was all about.

Erin even vaguely remembered my compliment in Rite-Aid from the summer before. Her right biceps actually is comprised of three pieces, all of them inked by Todd at Hardwire Tattoo in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Her first element is the phrase "Until we meet again".
Erin's father passed away when she was very young, and the quote is a phrase that resonated with her in an obituary written for her father by one of his close friends.

Words can be healing, across the years, and the phrase is a powerful reminder of her father's memory.

The piece was enhanced by the tree and, an element that I didn't notice when I first saw the tattoo months ago, the dandelion, which is on the inner part of the arm.


Erin loved the tree design and had it placed in a way that the "until we meet again" phrase runs in the foreground, creating the impression that they were part of the same design.

The dandelion is a flower that is often associated with childhood. What kid hasn't made a wish and blown on a recently-plucked dandelion to watch the seeds scattered by the breeze? The dandelion on the inner arm wraps around and the seeds blowing away actually drift into the other element of the tattoo, making the two pieces become one.

The part that, I believe, binds the whole tattoo together is the piece above the tree:

This is a depiction of a heart that has been ripped in two. However, it has been mended, held together by thread that binds it. Note the needle still sticking out of it in the upper left corner of the heart.

The image is inspired by the fact that Erin's mother was a seamstress by trade, and despite the tragedy of her husband's (Erin's father) death, she kept the family together. It's a nice tribute and a fitting homage to the woman who held the family together, in the face of great loss.

Many thanks to Erin for sharing her amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!