A girl on the train today had such massive tattoos all over any visible part of her body that one might actually say that the tattoos had the girl, not the other way round. There was a violent blue wave going from the back of her head (and so I assume from an area somewhere on her back) all the way under her hair, through her forehead, the eye, the cheek, all the way to the jaw. It was a massive layer of blue and black ink. Maybe 2-3 inches wide. The other side of her face had a similar kind of decoration, but it incorporated the ear a bit more and went well into the lips. Each tiny piece of skin on both hands was also marked and drawn on and painted. There were brute lines, and round dots, there was a cascade of geometric shapes on the left hand. Not only had she chosen to color her skin, she had also decided to puncture and pierce it. There were at least five rings in her lower lip alone. A similar amount of rings was placed in an area that used to be her eyebrows, now shaved, one replaced by blue black markings, the other one just part of a violent design.
She was was one of the passengers on my side of the car. I only noticed her because she was the only one who almost ran out of the train to let some people on the platform know that their train would never come because of a change in schedule. Some of those waiting were listening to music or reading. Not one person was convinced by the calls of the tattooed girl.
I knew I should not have been stunned by her holding the largest of Starbucks cups. I wonder why I was. Maybe because the "designed" cup, in its cardboard protective sleeve looked so weak in the hands of this girl that somehow seemed to belong to a completely different tribe than mine.
Well, that was, in a very strange way, a beautiful post. Simply lovely.
Posted by: Charles on April 14, 2003 08:17 PMindeed charles has a point. very nice character study.
speaking of colours, could you explain the process for your changing graphic images at the top (the javascript i know, it's what did you do in photoshop that interests me).
thank you.
Posted by: michelle on April 14, 2003 08:41 PMThank you. : )
Michelle, the header are indeed 51 images served randomly. The current images are based on photographs, some of which are presented in the catalogue section of the site. There are many ways to achieve the effect you are asking about. : )
Try experimenting with scaling the image, as well as some very basic filters supplied with photoshop.
A very favorite artist, Tom Friedman, actually made a self portrait that looked a bit like the headers here. I think he used pixel cloning. There are many ways to achieve the effect. : )
Starbucks cup-o-joe as a "weak" object. Hum... how does this play with the corp office?
Is a mention worth more than a perception?
I like what you do.
you have the most incredible powers of description :)
Posted by: shauny on April 16, 2003 02:54 PM...and she wore black on black chucks. long dreads dyed red and piled high atop her oval face. mayan numerals up her fingers and an eagle on her left calf. the last half of her face only a singal verical stripe, the right half--the tribal half--didn't continue to her back but around to her chest--right side only and as geometric as her features. believe it or not she was actually reading "tattoo magazine," you know there is a convention in town.
j train delancey to myrtle 23.14 april 17th 2003
(oh yeah and the official count is:
4 in bottom lip only
2 in cheeks [one for each]
2 in right nostril
2 at top of nose [could be where "eyebrows" meet
and yes, her eyebrows were indeed shaved off])
i noticed her only because i had to see what everyone was looking at and at that point it was much more fun to watch the people walk by and watch her than what actually watching her was.)
Posted by: em!ly on April 17, 2003 12:10 AMWow, Emily!, this is great! Thank you! Yes, that is definitely her!
Your description also shows that...
a) New York is a tiny town, as we run into the same people...
b) My observations are at best aproximate. : )
c) It is possible to do something that makes New Yorkers stare.
: )
I obviously did not stare and totally missed the cheek piercings or the exact location of the tattoos... : )
totally a small town.
Posted by: em!ly on April 17, 2003 11:20 AM