Kathleen Szoke's Blue Jay on the Tattooed Poets Project

Our next tattooed poet is Kathleen Szoke, a Canadian poet with a stunning tattoo:

Kathleen tells us about her lovely blue jay tattoo:

"[It]  is in memory of an experience I had several years ago.  At a weekend retreat, we were asked to write a journal entry about owning our truth, and speaking out about what we wanted.  I wrote a piece about being a poet, owning that, and saying, 'I'm a poet.'  I had been ambivalent in the past about stating that, instead of just, 'Oh, I write poems sometimes, it's a hobby.'  We were taking turns reading our pieces, and the reaction I got was extremely enthusiastic, more than I expected.  The others explained that what I didn't know was that just after I started to speak, a blue jay appeared on a tree outside the window behind me.  It stayed until I finished speaking, and then flew away.  I never saw it myself, as it was behind me, over my left shoulder, which is where my blue jay sits now forever.  Unfortunately, the written piece was one of many things lost in a fire, so all I have left of that experience is the tattoo."

Kathleen credited the artist Carol at Sinkin Ink (@sinkin_ink) in Hamilton, Ontario, with this lovely blue jay.

Kathleen sent us the following poem to accompany her tattoo:

Witness

The blue jay called to me today
raucous and shrill
from the still barren lilacs
rising above the fence
outside the kitchen window.
He appears there sometimes
or on the old birch tree
perched at the very top
caws his discordant song.

He sat behind my shoulder once
beyond my sight
in the branches of another tree
outside another window
listened as I spoke truths
I only half believed.
When I finished
he flew away.

He stops by
on occasion
to remind me.

~ ~ ~

Kathleen Szoke is a poet writing in Burlington, Ontario.  She has been published in Canadian literary journals, such as The Antigonish Review,  The Dalhousie Review, and the American/Canadian journal The Great Lakes Review.  She has read her poetry at the Eden Mills Writer's Festival, the Kingston Artfest, and other local venues.  She sits on the executive of the Hamilton Poetry Centre, and is an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets.  She published a chapbook, Heavenly Blue, in 2011.

Thanks to Kathleen for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on The Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2017 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.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: Meg Freitag

Our next Tattooed Poet o' the Week is Meg Freitag.

She sent us two tattoos, starting with this colorful scene:

Meg elaborates:

"This first tattoo, on my left arm, is of two red foxes and two bluejays all enjoying themselves together in the forest. I wouldn't say that there's much 'meaning' to it, other than I'm pretty crazy about animals, and interested quasi-philosophically in predator/prey relationships, the necessary violence of it. It is something I think about a lot, and definitely emerges as a theme in my writing. I like the idea of forcing these two animals who are at opposite ends of the food chain to exist together in this way, in a funny sort of freeze-frame harmony. And foxes and jays are two of my favorites--they are both so extraordinarily clever! I admire their trickster natures, their no-nonsenseness, their savvy. I also think they are very aesthetically beautiful, which was ultimately a large part of why I chose them for this purpose. This tattoo was done by Tina Star at Resurrection Tattoo in Austin, Texas."

She also sent us this piece:

Meg tells us:

"The second tattoo is on my left ribs, and is a simple outline of an envelope. My two close friends and I got these matching tattoos the month before I moved to Austin for grad school. We each got a different size envelope--in addition to be a symbol of connectedness, it's also sort of a vague take on the matryoshka doll. Mine is the largest of the three, for no other reason than my friends both already have quite a bit of body art and I had more space. These ones were done by Sean Perkinson at FTW Tattoo Parlor in Oakland, California."

She also sent us this poem, which was first published in the summer 2014 issue of Tin House:

What Small Death Shines Up from the Dirt

Edith, I think I’ve been trying to replace you.

Lately I’ve lit fires in my own mouth

That can only be put out with another mouth. He and I,

We found a baby rattlesnake injured

In the middle of the road. Half its body stuck

To the blacktop, the other half looping around

And around its own busted part like a busy

Signal. He said, The babies are the most dangerous.

They haven’t learned to restrict their own venom

And so they pump it all in at once.

Everyone knows that, I said. But still he had to stop me

From wrapping the leftover part of the snake up

In my T-shirt and carrying it home.

I thought that if I saved it, it would be so grateful 

It wouldn’t try to hurt me. Edith, I’m afraid I can love myself only

If someone else loves me first.  One time I let him have me

Against the sink in a TJ Maxx bathroom

And we didn’t even leave our merchandise outside.

One time I was so afraid of sharks I had a panic attack

In a paddleboat while my cousin yelled at me, over and over,

We’re in a goddamn lake! One time I dreamed I saw

A hundred of my own heads on wooden stakes, but they were tiny,

Like a tray of hors d’oeuvres. One time I had a dream that the dog ate you

And choked on your beak and also died.

One time I thought I loved someone

I hardly knew at all. Long ago, I saw a hawk in a tree,

Disemboweling a baby prairie dog. I was with a child and instinctively

I put my hand over his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see.

But the guts, Edith, I couldn’t take my own eyes off them.

How they shone in the dirt, like wet rubies, or like something

You didn’t know you were even looking for,

In the moment when you finally find it. 

~ ~ ~

Meg Freitag was born in Brunswick, Maine, and now lives in Austin, Texas, where she's an MFA candidate at UT's Michener Center for Writers. Her work has appeared in Tin House, Narrative, and Smoking Glue Gun.

Thanks to Meg for sharing her tattoos and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2014 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.

Amy's Feathers from Hawai'i (updated)

We're tying up some loose ends from earlier this year, and figured we'd share this cool tattoo:

This piece, on the back of a woman named Amy's leg, came to us in March via e-mail from the island of Hawai'i. Amy was a student of my mother's at the University of Hawai'i, Hilo campus. Mom snapped this photo, with Amy's blessing, for Tattoosday.

We don't have any further detail on the tattoo, like the name of the artist, and the origin of the design. There are peacock feathers, and I'm guessing eagle feathers, but I can't identify the other plumage with certainty. Nonetheless, we thought it was worth sharing, and clearing out our "in" box.

Amy credits Delshay at K-Town Tattoo & Body Piercing in Kona, Hawai'i with this tattoo. She added:

"I came up with the concept. Delshay put it all together for me. It's my bouquet of feathers.

The feathers range from peacock, bustard, macaw, flamingo, blue jay, pheasant and myna.

The story is mine."

Here's another photo from the artist's tumblr page: 

Mahalo to Amy for sharing this tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! And thanks to Mom for sending it our way!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

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.