Tattoo No 5: MFA Tattoo

Photo by Jessica Fox-Wilson

Tattoo by Keith Hieserich, Shop Owner of Defiant Tattoos & Body Piercing

I’ve finished my Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Hamline University in November 2008. It took, as a part-time student, five years. It is a big a accomplishment for me; however, I have a hard time encapsulating my personal accomplishments, or truly connecting what I’ve done to a space of time. Hopes that makes some sense to someone.

To celebrate my MFA, I got a new tattoo this week. I’ve been obsessing about a new one for more than a year. My loving wife pushed me to go get it done. Let me tell you, as an ink enthusiast, it is nice to be married to some one who not only understands, but also has move from just understanding to enabling.

This time, I wanted to do something different. My other tattoos have been relatively simple. I’ve taken flash as it was originally drawn. For my MFA celebration tattoo, I put together some elements and handed them over to the tattooist to fold together. In a dialogue, we settled on the letters MFA in the upper left hand corner, an ink spill above a dissembled fountain pen, and the quote tapering down toward my wrist. All of these symbolic elements really came together well. I’m very pleased.

The quote reads: “Damn these days off. Give me work so I don’t have to constantly consume myself.” It is from “Black Coffee Blues” in Black Coffee Blues by Henry Rollins. This quote speaks to me. I have a very hard time with the unfocused moments in my life. I avoid them as much as I can, but I can’t stay busy every moment of every day. This part of my tattoo is to help me remember that time off is good for me and that not every second of every day needs to be saturated with some form of entertainment, media, or working. I’m a classic workaholic.

I’m going to send the above picture to one of my favorite tattoo blogs, Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos, to see if they will post it.