Matt Amott's Locomotive (The Tattooed Poets Project)

Our next tattooed poet is Matt Amott, who sent us this amazing tattoo:

Photo by Megan Bean

Matt tells us:

The train is the image of Locomotive #5 of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad. This was a railroad that ran between Nevada City, Grass Valley and Colfax California from the late 1800's until the early years of WWII. These cities were mining and lumber towns in the west foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in California, about an hour east of Sacramento. I spent my childhood summers there with my cousin and as an adult I lived there for a number of years. Always a fan of trains since I was a kid, I loved learning the history of the NCNGRR and I thought this tattoo would be a great representation of my passion for trains while paying tribute to the history of a place I lived. The tattoo was done by Cory Norris (@corynorrisart) of Classic Tattoo, which is also in Grass Valley, Ca.

Matt sent us this poem, as well, which was previously published in THE COAST IS CLEAR (Six Ft. Swells Press):

ZEPHYR

Standing on the platform

watching the train roll to a stop.

The locomotive massive,

bright, shiny, silver,

like an old Airstream trailer

the folks would load

with their belongings

and drag across the country

looking for a brighter future.

I see it's strength

in sleek lines

running up the side

all the way to the front.

The engineer views the world

through windows

resembling squinting eyes,

drawn tight from looking at miles

of desert plains and rocky grades.

I make my way down the string of cars

until a weathered old man

with a pocket watch

and a lifetime of railroad stories asks,

     "Are you Chicago bound?"

     My reply, a nod.

     "Well son, hop on board."

   And that's

     as simple

      as it gets

       to just leave.

~ ~ ~

Matt Amott is a poet, musician and photographer who rambles around the Pacific Northwest. He is co-founder and co-editor of Six Ft. Swells Poetry Press and has been published in numerous collections as well as two books of his own, THE COAST IS CLEAR (Six Ft. Swells Press) and GET WELL SOON (Epic Rites Press). Matt's turn-ons included pre-1978 custom Dodge vans, OP/Lightning Bolt apparel, shirts with numbers, cords, heavy fuzz, deep Blues, heart-wrenching Soul, record players, CB radios, postcards, Kung Fu movies, Logan's Run, patches/iron-ons and longboards. He can be reached and purchases made at afterhourspoetry.com.

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

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

Alabama Stone's Tattoos on the Tattooed Poets Project

Our next tattooed poet is Alabama Stone. Alabama introduced herself to me, identifying as "a dirty Southern girl that writes a lot about lineage and family and what it means to be born in the swampy coastal Carolinas."

She has three tattoos, "all of which," she explained, "carry a lot of meaning." She added, "Basically, I’m too sentimental for my own good; so I became a poet…with tattoos."

Let's check them out:

Alabama explained:

My first tattoo is the steam engine on my left arm. There are several reasons I got this tattoo. My dad worked on trains and in a rail yard briefly, plus I’ve always been crazy about trains.

And then there's these:

She explains:

"On my right arm is my most recent tattoo is an illustration by Garth Williams from the book, Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown. My mother would read this book to me every night, and sing the little song to me in the back of the book.

Above it, is C.D. Wright’s handwriting from the last letter she wrote me. C.D. Wright has been a long time literary hero for me. I wrote her a long letter, sealed it, and made myself send it without rereading it. A month or so later, I get two postcards in the mail—handmade broadsides with a lovely letter on them. She signed the last letter as, 'Be well. Ever, C.D.' When she passed last year, I knew I wanted it with me forever."

Alabama's tattoo artist is Rene Estrada aka Chico (@tattoosbychico714) from Hillsborough Street Tattoo & Body Piercing (@2402tattoo) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Chico coincidentally tattooed  Liz Purvis, another one of our featured poets seen here in 2016.

Alabama shared the following poem with us, as well:

Whiskey Creek

for the Farrow – George family

of Masonboro Sound.

Born in Swamp, (N.C.)

big-hipped mamas,

cast-iron cookin’ queens,

curl up on the dock.

Hair stuck wet

from the salt

of our seasweat.

Sleep in

marsh beds.

We fear the ghosts

of our histories.

Down here

on The Sound,

we paint our porches blue.

So the light sticks.

The good stays.

To scare away the dark.

To get rid of what’s

already been got.

A nest from a spider

or a spooked fog.

A smoke bright

and burnin’ mad.

Keeps em’ out—sometimes

we paint the door frames too,

‘cause mama says granma’s

mama always did,

the color haint blue.

We make our livin’ makin’

 shine or wine or

 —nunya, goddamned, fucken, business.

boozer.

bootlegger.                                                                                                      

rumrunner,

crook.

                                                                                               

We, the granny witches,                             

castin’ spells and fishin’ lines.

Carryin’ pinfish in our pockets.                            

Clammin’ with our feet.

We walk, tired.

Lift up our knees,

ankles stuck in mud,

babies hang to our hips

with their fat little fists

of hushpuppies.

Our feet and hands hurt

from workin’.

Our backs hurt

from carryin’

the family name.

~ ~ ~

Alabama Stone is not from Alabama—she is from the swampy wetlands of North Carolina. Raised on the humidity of the South, she relies on her family name for inspiration. Her poetry has appeared in
Blue Mesa Review, Crab Fat Magazine, voicemail poems, (parenthetical): words(on)pages; along with being an official poet in the “PoMoSco Project” while working with The Found Poetry Review.
She holds a MFA from North Carolina State University and is the cofounder and director of Street Smarts & The Arts, a community program bringing poetry workshops to runaway and homeless youth of North Carolina.

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

This entry is ©2017 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoos 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.