TC Tolbert: A Joy To Be Hidden/A Gift to Be Found (The Tattooed Poets Project)

Our next tattooed poet is TC Tolbert, who sent us this photo:

TC explains:

This is a riff on a quote by psychoanalyst Donald W. Winnicott. He said: It is a joy to be hidden, and disaster not to be found, and while I wholeheartedly agree, I just did not want to tattoo the word 'disaster' on my chest (for many reasons) and so I tweaked it. It now reads It is a joy to be hidden and a gift to be found.

I’m trans (FTM) and I decided not to have top surgery about a decade ago but I often wear a compression shirt (though not always) and I’m on testosterone. This piece is the decoration that most accurately celebrates and speaks to the both/and of so much of my experience and especially my chest. It was inked on me in Santa Fe by Dawn Purnell – an incredible artist I’ve been to for several pieces (including Duchamp’s Fountain and Magritte’s Treachery of Images).

The photo of my chest is a selfie with my partner’s fingers covering my nipples.

TC shared the following poem, as well, which was first published in The Nation in July 2019:

felo-de-se—Melissa

physicists say we change an object simply by turning
our attention to it—really I am a grandson
only when we are eating at Panera—one of us is lying
always about her particular hunger—I love the children outside of me
counting to 30 while covering their eyes—whose body
will we sacrifice to be in the company of another—each
day across my ongoing—I haul the husk of her—fire
towers are designed for distance viewing—and I am right
here—mothering you into the next life—call me cover
when you don’t know who I could be—time’s
psychologic and legal assault—no one is listening to
ice become water—burying you to keep us alive—

~ ~ ~

Photo by Shawnte Orion

TC Tolbert identifies as a trans and genderqueer feminist, collaborator, mover, and poet. And, s/he’s a human in love with humans doing human things. S/he is author of Gephyromania (Ahsahta Press 2014), five chapbooks, and co-editor of Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics (Nightboat Books 2013). TC was recently awarded an Academy of American Poets’ Laureate Fellowship for his work with trans, non-binary, and queer folks as Tucson’s Poet Laureate. S/he is Writer in Residence at Pratt Institute, 2019-2020. www.tctolbert.com

Thanks to TC for contributing to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

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.

"If I Am Not For Myself" ... Simon's Tattoo

I met Simon a few months back in Bowling Green Park, after I spotted this inscription on his right forearm:

This quote reads, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, who am I?"

A great inscription, for sure. When I asked Simon to whom it is attributed, he said Hillel, a great Jewish religious leader and thinker who lived over 2000 years ago.

The quote has a third line, ”And if not now, when?" 

This, Simon told me, he "couldn’t fit on there," so his wife has it tattooed on her back.

Hillel the Elder is considered one of the great Jewish scholars and is oft-cited when studying meaning and explanation of religious readings in the Torah.

Having never seen a Hillel tattoo before, I asked Simon if he had any particular reason for getting this tattooed on him, and in such a visible place. Simply, he replied, “It’s a great quote to live by.”

Fair enough.

He had the tattoo done at Addicted to Ink in White Plains, New York.

Thanks to Simon for sharing this cool tattoo 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.

Kate's Marie Antoinette Tattoo (and a Look at Something New)

Looking back to May, I wanted to share this tattoo from Kate that I photographed at the New York City Tattoo Convention:

You can tell from the photo that Kate has simply incredible sleeves. These and the pistol shown in my convention recap here were tattooed by Becca Roach at North Star Tattoo in Manhattan.

It was this back piece, however, that really interested me:

Kate explained that this was her first large tattoo and it depicts Marie Antoinette. She told me, "I always felt a connection with good old Marie A, and felt she was an ordinary girl put in extraordinary circumstances."

The banner below Ms. Antoinette reads, "l'amour pour moi qui je suis, pas qui vous voulez etre a moi," which translates to "love me for who I am, not for who you want me to be."

She credited this tattoo to Jef Wright at Wealthy Street Tattoo in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In subsequent conversations with Kate, she told me that Marie now has company. Artist Becca Roach has started a new piece lower on Kate's back:

Can't wait to see the final product!

Thanks again to Kate for sharing her work with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

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.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 Quotable Tom Ford

As a new season of Project Runway premiered last night, I thought I'd share a fashion-related tattoo. Working on "Fashion Avenue," I see a lot of ink on people in the industry. Here's one from Megan:

This is a quote by the fashion designer Tom Ford:

"Beauty is an illusion/It is here only for a moment/Then it fades/But in the brief moment of existence/It has forever/impacted the world"

Megan read these words in one of Ford's books, in a section about evening wear.

"I love Tom Ford," she told me, "and I think he's a very smart man."

The tattoo was done about 2-3 years ago at Ink Candy in Hollywood by an artist named Angel.

Thanks to Megan for sharing this inspirational quote with us here on Tattoosday!