Keith S. Wilson on The Tattooed Poets Project

Our next tattooed poet is Keith S. Wilson, who shares this interesting tattoo:

We'll let Keith explain the origins of these markings:

" I got a crop circle because it's awesome. But I also chose this tattoo because it represents a peculiar modern mythology that I've identified with in some capacity for most my life. Crop circles are associated with 'Greys' (the large-headed, big-eyed aliens you see in everything from Spencer’s Gift posters to the X-Files. Curiously, they are just as often portrayed as green-skinned as grey), and other images and ideas exist as well, all of which I love: UFOs, crop circles, cattle abduction, vivisection, tractor beams, ray guns, etc. The idea that aliens walk among us, communicating loudly but still never being seen is a feeling I’ve had since at least high school. It is based, I’m sure, on feeling literally alienated as a racially ambiguous, but not white, resident of Kentucky, in primarily white environments. We’re out there. Believe.

Sci-fi is a genre that, for me, vacillates wildly between three different modes: 1) writing openly about race/gender/sexual orientation/identity/etc., 2) writing accidentally about them, and 3) trying to write about them but failing. I love when it does it right, but I also love how it marries the future (science, advancement, hope) with the past and present (mythology, humanism). I write about all these things, to varying degrees.

Specifically, I chose the design because most crop circles occur in England and this one happened in America (which also may contribute to its unique figure, which is not 'circular' per se). If it means anything, it might portray a planet and satellite, but who, of course, can know with an image that appears suddenly in the night."

Keith also kindly offered up the following poem, which originally appeared in The Adroit Journal:

I Investigate Terraforming in My 30s

Soon enough I find an Earth-like

planet, but how Earth-like is only like, is like

how a kiss may be alike

but isn't quite,

or how every photo from Kentucky—

how you used to sigh—is only

now a likeness. Or how this bandaged light

upends the bruise that became

the sky: I liked you, I like liked

you. And we held each other

as we made our child-

hoods hush; we strained

to merge like trees into a custom. We held

to each other’s hands

even when our notes

were misaligned. We would,

without half-trying, alight one upon the other.

What is gravity to our horns? We reached

and tore each other plain as walls

or erstwhile countries,

and the dream became a sun,

beneath me, the land, the fade

of wing,  my every instrument

a lyre’s vital music, my every simile, a flame.

~ ~ ~  

Keith S. Wilson is an Affrilachian Poet, Cave Canem fellow, and graduate of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop. He has received three scholarships from Bread Loaf as well as scholarships from MacDowell, UCross, Millay Colony, and the Vermont Studio Center, among others. Keith serves as Assistant Poetry Editor at Four Way Review and Digital Media Editor at Obsidian Journal. Keith's first book, Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love, will be published by Copper Canyon in 2019.

Thanks to Keith for sharing his tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday, on the Tattooed Poets Project.

To see our entire list of poets over the last ten years, please visit www.tattooedpoets.com.

This entry is ©2018 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.

Michael's Space Odyssey

I met Michael at a deli down near the New York Stock Exchange at the beginning of the summer.
He had this cool tattoo that he was nice enough to share:

He wanted a space theme on his arm and this is the first part of it. He says it will merge with a time theme on his other arm.

He credits this great work to Jon Mesa (@jonmesa) at No Idols Tattoo (@noidolsnyc) in Manhattan.

Thanks to Michael for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2017 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.

Mike's Flying Saucer and Pyramids Were Meant to Appear Here

There are often times that I see interesting tattoos but the opportunity to speak to their hosts is not ideal, so I make peace with the fact that featuring them here is not meant to be. If it's meant to be, I believe, we shall meet again, even in a city of seven million people.

This may seem silly to some, that tattoos are fated to appear on Tattoosday, but one example amazes me and makes me wonder.

On October 12, I planned to sell a couple bags of books at the Strand Bookstore. I left my office on 31st and 7th and headed east down 31st on the north side of the street.

Halfway down the block I noticed the guy walking in front of me had tattoos. It was when he took off his jacket or sweater that I realized he had several interesting ones.

I sighed. I was laden down with books and he was moving at a pretty brisk pace. At 6th Avenue, he turned right, downtown. I shrugged and thought "oh well," and turned left to the north.

I walked a block to 32nd Street and entered the Subway at Greeley Square. I caught the train to 14th Street/Union Square and came out on 14th and Broadway. I walked two blocks south to the Strand at the corner of Broadway and East 12th.

I stood in line for a bit, and then met with the bookbuyer who gave me a fair price. I left the store, heading north on Broadway, crossing the street and depositing the money I had just received for the books at a Chase ATM machine. I exited the vestibule and headed back to Union Square. I had just crossed East 13th when a familiar face passed me. Rather, familiar tattoos. I whirled and caught up to the guy I had seen 18 blocks and 2 avenues away, approximately 1.1 miles, according to Google Maps.

I thought the odds of seeing him again so soon were too great not to interpret it as a sign, I was meant to speak to this person.

He introduced himself as Mike, a director and he shared this tattoo:

This tattoo represents Aliens building the Pyramids. Mike is into conspiracy theories and the mystery surrounding the construction of these magnificent structures continues to stir the imaginations of humankind after thousands of years.

The tattoo itself was a two-part construction. The flying saucer was the first to be inked.

The artist was James Hamilton at Love Hate Tattoo Studio in Miami. Love Hate, for those who don't know, is the shop featured in the show Miami Ink.

The pyramids were later added by Jason Hoodrich at Code of Conduct in Chicago.

Thanks to Mike for sharing these cool tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!