I’m no Lazarus but I Have Returned!!

I apologize to everyone who reads this blog for my 2 year absence. I’ve just been so busy with projects and really lacking any energy to write more than I have to. Also much of my philosophical skills and knowledge are being well exercised at Things & Ink and with teaching. If you don’t subscribe to the magazine, you should think about — it’s a great publication, utterly unique in the tattoo industry. Here’s a taste of what I’ve been doing over there – in print – but do go check out their blog, I do posts from time to time:

Issue 1, The Launch Issue: “Old School for Girls” — There’s Peggy the Pin-up Girl, but what about Paul the pin-up guy?

Issue 2, The Face Issue: “Herstory I & II” — a history of facial tattooing for women and a commentary on why Western culture lacks this tradition. Naomi Wolf is discussed.

Issue 3, The Love Issue: “How Do I Love Thee? Let me Ink The Ways” — a discussion of tattoo love symbols. Gadamer is the philosopher of the discussion.

Issue 4, The Art Issue: “Tattoo Art Styles: Three Different Genres of Tattooing Explained” and “His Story” a review of Shanghai Kate Hellenbrand’s book (she published it but it is written by Sailor Jerry) and a short interview with her.

Issue 5, The Celebration Issue: “A Celebration of My Absurd Life” — a discussion of my breastplate tattoo meaning, where Camus is the star.

Issue 6, The Modification Issue: “Lived Experience Colours Me” — where I interview members of KMFDM about their tattoos and the main philosophical concept of the discussion is ‘Erlebnis’; also “A Celebration of My Absurd Life: Breastplate Update” is just an update on my chest tattoo

Issue 7, The Identity Issue: “I am My Tattoos” — A discussion of the tattoo artist’s role in the identity of the tattoo. Hume is the philosopher discussed.

Issue 8 is in progress but It’s looking to be another killer issue. I’m in the midst of discussions with Vince Hemingson of Vanishing Tattoo fame about his project, The Tattoo Project: Body. Art. Image. Be sure and check out the Kickstarter project page for this amazing and most worthy project. There is also a FB page, and several You Tube Videos.

I almost quit blogging, until I got a chance read all the nice comments people sent me. So, thanks! ❤ But to strike a balance I will try to blog short things here or at least do a mental wandering of what I am working on for the magazine (I only have so much space in the magazine so it might help to exercise some demons and approaches here). Philosophy is so much apart of tattooing, and I think many of the greats we treasure have something useful to say … or fun to say. And sometimes I just love fucking with them.