About Me ….

My name is Kimberly and I am an unemployed philosopher, an unemployed phenomenological realist if you want to be specific about it. One of the many PhD’s searching for that desirable and ever elusive tenured professor spot at some nice university. Occasionally I am employed to teach philosophy (on contract) at one of the local universities. I teach people’s adult children all about Immanuel Kant, the history of philosophy, metaphysics & epistemology, etc. I am also a writer for Things & Ink Magazine. And I am currently president of NASEP as well.

When I don’t have my nose in a book or my ass in front of the computer working away, I get tattooed (I should add here, when I have money as well). I have been getting tattooed since I was 17, and over the last few years I have begun to contemplate the philosophical significance of ‘everything ink’ – not just the experience, not just the design, not just personal preference, not just the expression or meaning, but EVERYTHING about it. No, this won’t be some fluffy philosophical journey where I talk in new age self-help terms, or use lots of hyphenated jargon words with -ness on the end, or create my own language and not provide a dictionary. I’m not THAT kind of philosopher. I believe, like the enlightenment philosophers, that philosophy should be accessible to everyone, and that it can enrich their lives in meaningful ways.

People often think philosophy is just an academic pursuit, something you take as an elective on the path to your REAL degree. However, I would argue that philosophy is very relevant to our modern daily life, one just has to make the effort to demonstrate it, to spark some interest in others … take that layer of dust and crustiness off philosophy’s head. Philosophy was developed in the streets with discourse — Socrates wasn’t a professor with tenure or some ivory tower snob. As part and parcel with this, I think that there should never be areas considered ‘off-limits’ to philosophical discussion. Meaning and truth can be found in any thing, any where. Now, an important part of my personal life is being a tattooed philosopher. Being a tattooed philosopher is still a bit unacceptable and brow raising to the old professors’ club, and add in there that I am a girl, a blonde, and you get a lot of supposed reasons why not to take me seriously. Actually, I don’t really take myself seriously, but that is beside the point here.

SO, I ask: why not be cheeky about it all and enlighten the mind? Why not explore various philosophical ideas and all things tattooed at the same time? Philosophy knows no limits and those who try to impose them should be locked in the box with Schrödinger’s cat or repeatedly assaulted with Wittgenstein’s poker.