Twiggy Electric's Lines

One night back in September, I was headed home from a poetry reading (and tattooed poets), when I met a woman on the 59th Street Platform in Brooklyn. She let me photograph her tattoo:

She called herself Twiggy Electric, and this is how our conversation went:

Tattoosday (BC): Is there any significance...

Twiggy Electric (TE): There is, um, it's more about what you see, so...

BC: Okay

TE: What do you see?

BC: Well, when you say Twiggy, then I think twigs.

TE: Okay, obviously, but that has more to do with the model, so I'm actually curious what you see...

BC: Oh, lines and cracks and fissures and, there's some structure in there. Barbed wire, but not really like in that tacky, like '80s, '90s barbed wire arm band type of thing

TE: Okay

BC: Concentric circles around the lower part of the arm. Um, so I... I don't see...they're just fissures and cracks in your arm

TE: Right, okay

BC: Is that okay?

TE: Yeah, no it's cool. My vision between the entire thing [notices the phone out] You're recording, I see

BC: Is that okay? [Train pulls into station slowly, noisily]

TE: Yeah, that's cool. You didn't ask me first...

BC: Sorry, Sorry [Thinks to self, I though it was obvious, I was holding my phone out.]

TE: But I see that you are, so but my vision

BC: I don't put the recording up there

TE: is to force people to view things artistically

BC: So you force people to view things artistically?

TE: Yeah, so um, they're just lines. That's it.

BC: just lines, that's it?

TE:No other structure, that's it.

BC: Okay

TE: The way I view it is, ordered chaos, in a way.

BC: Okay

TE: The first circle is closed and all the other ones are open That's something you're gonna see if you look very closely, but the whole point behind seeing things artistically is, you pick up on your own vision.

Here's another shot of Twiggy Electric's tattoos, much more artistic, copied from a public photo on her Instagram:

Thanks to Twiggy Electric for sharing her tattoo, and for engaging me in a discussion about the work.

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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Emmalea Russo

Today's tattooed poet is Emmalea Russo.

Emmalea says, "I am obsessed by simple lines - straight and wavy," and sent along this photo to share her line tattoos:

"These five [lines] are by Ron [Mor] at Hand of Glory Tattoo in Brooklyn's Park Slope," she explained.

Emmalea shared this poem, which originally appeared in Ambush Review:

able to be framed by a train window

it’s meadow framed
in window half drenched
gone it is bigger than train
it is tame from here wilder
than lawn than a book + weighs
less - weighs nothing

if I undo the meadow if I uproot
each blade what would it weigh in
my hands more with water like metal

how many gone things
weigh nothing is sh
adow a thing is light
is a tunnel longdrenched
speed through it

~ ~ ~

Emmalea Russo is a poet and visual artist living in Brooklyn. She received her MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Recent work has appeared in Ambush Review, ILK, Wicked Alice, and Yew Journal.
Two chapbooks, clearing (dancing girl press) and book of southern and water (Poor Claudia) are forthcoming in 2013

Thanks to Emmalea for sharing her line tattoos 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.

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.