realization: perfectionism in tattooing is an obsessive, unnecessary behavior.
it is the gesture of the mark which holds its meaning.
this is the basis of shamanistic tattooing.
in working on the friday thirteenth design for this month, i spent hours obsessing on the mark. repeatedly putting mechanical pencil to paper, trying to execute the crosshair lines with absolute precision. it 'bout drove me out of my skull. the most simple of things can be so complex!
after a few hundred marks, and several sheets of paper, i came to the realization that my obsession was missing the mark, so to speak.
inherent in the mark, is the gesture, the seed, the magical kernel of what the mark is to convey ... or carry ... onto/into the body.
that is --the perfection of the mark, is not what the mark itself, is about.
the mark itself is not representational, but functional ... from the hand of the shaman to the wearer of the mark.
such as the work done by the tattooing monks of burma, and in other areas of the world ... where tattooing still functions within the realm of its ancient roots in the magical, curative, and or shamanistic ... where tattoos are not about "hipness" or "cool factor" or the ego drive to display our inner souls on the surface of our skin for all to see ... where what tattooing "is," is quite simply, what it "does" ... the magic of tattooing is found within this little recipe --not in the mark that is left upon the skin!
(hence, some tattoos are scribed within the skin without pigment, using oils --such as sesame, and other plant oils) because it is not the mark's visibility which matters ... only that the mark has been made upon the body in need.
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