bro, you awake?

Sometimes it's like there's a little person in your head tap-tap-tapping away, sometimes gently, sometimes not, when you're trying to fall asleep. Just quietly, happily, trying to fall asleep.

"Bro, you awake? How about that presentation tomorrow, huh? Wonder if the file is on the shared drive. Wow, these covers get warm, you should stick your feet out. Nah, pull 'em back in. What time is it, like 4am or something? Oh, it's 1? Huh. Yo, think that tick gave you Lyme's disease? How would you know? What are the symptoms of Lyme's disease? Should we lay here and think about it for a while? Geez, that dog snores loud. Bro, you sleepin'? How about that pillow, huh? Could this thing get any more lumpy?"

I feel like my insomnia voice seems to sound like a low-level shtick comedian from Jersey working the late shift. He has too much chest hair and not enough good jokes.

(On the other hand, I got up and ate a brownie, so there's that.)

Here's a great little TED talk on the mystery of 4am in literature, music and culture. 

i'll take the banana

Here's a fascinating short documentary by Marc Isaacs.

He filmed people in a London apartment elevator, just standing there in the back of the car, watching with his camera and listening with his microphone, as people end up telling him personal things about themselves.

Amazing how we trust each other sometimes.

got ink?

I've always dug tattoos. Some are incredibly elegant, with very intense artwork and shading. Some confuse me... did a four year old draw that?

Back in college when it became a trend among my friends to get one, I didn't. I just couldn't think of what image or text I'd want on my body forever. This notion was reinforced by some of the incredibly dumbass tats my friends got, like a Joe the Camel around a bicep, or the Tasmanian Devil ripping out of a peace sign inked on a back. They weren't winners. I admit I didn't have much respect for the work.

But I do respect a person's dedication to great ink art, and I respect great ink artists. While you can buy yourself a full-length sleeve tattoo for ten bucks, that's only good for Halloween. If you dedicate your life (and your skin) to intricate, artistic tats, you've got my respect.

This one looks like it was painted on this woman's back...

via bodyartdiary.com

Really nice design...

via Sakura on deviantART.com

The colors on this one are fantastic...

via annielicious on deviantART.com

 Here's a fun game... find the tattoo...

pretty good illusion -- the pen is a tattoo

Obviously, I have a geek affinity for this one...

via Casey Tattoos

Tattoos tell a story. Some are "I got drunk and now I have this on my ass." Some are "I like to have Chinese characters on my arm -- it means 'courage'!" (Hint, no it doesn't.) Some tattoos commemorate an occasion, a person or an idea and mean more than what the ink shows. 

Some are simple, like this poem tattoo:

Picture of Pvt Hockenberry, © Laura Rauch Stars and Stripes

"For those I love I will sacrifice." The tattoo on Private First Class Kyle Hockenberry's right side became famous after he was greviously injured in Afghanistan in June 2011. On his evac out, Stars and Stripes reporter Laura Rauch took this now-famous picture. Pvt. Hockenberry was only 19 when he lost his legs and one arm. The Stars and Stripes article is worth the read -- the photo won a prestigious 2011 Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in journalism. (Here's more about Pvt. Hockenberry.)

As for me...
I knew exactly when the time was right for my first and only tattoo: in 2011 to celebrate the birth of my daughter. Since my daughter's name is Greek and Hebrew and means "the life that binds together," I knew I wanted an original design that would symbolize the interconnected lives of my wife, my daughter and myself. Here's what I came up with (with excellent work by ink artist Robert “Pup” Byington).

kidTruant's disembodied arm

The tattoo is made up of three signs all interwoven together representing the three of us: Gemini on top, looped into Cancer on the left and Aries at the bottom, tied into both) and is on my left arm (supposedly the one with the direct tie to the heart). I'm totally in love with my tat, and glad I waited for a design that was original and intimately connected to my family. It means wherever I go, they're with me. I think that's awesome.

The other day I was commenting on a Facebook post by a friend of mine, complementing this awesome display cabinet:

that's a lot of Imperial bad-assery in one cabinet (jealous)

Turns out, this magnificent display of imperial armor belongs to a fellow named Pat, the owner of Casey's Tattoo in Nacogdoches, Texas. I checked out the tattoo studio's Facebook page and dug their work (check out some photos). I saw their awesome new studio shirt and decided I wanted to represent my old home state here in DC. I sent Casey's a random message on Facebook and asked to buy a shirt. Talk about good people, they totally hooked me up! Not only did they not charge me, they sent me a ton of goodies: 2 shirts, 5 car stickers and even 2 beer cozies (they are in Texas, afterall). I'm wearing the color shirt right now (love the clover as the apostrophe).

Really nice of Pat and his crew at Casey's. If you happen to be close to Nacogdoches, and ink is in your future, you have to check them out. Looking at their fine detail work, small tattoo work (really impressive, btw) and their shading techniques, I wish I were closer.

Here's some of their work (the storm trooper tattoo above is theirs, as well)...

via Casey's Tattoos

via Casey's Tattoos

Love the shadow detail

Who knows, maybe a nice kidTruant tattoo is in the future? What do you say, Casey's?  ;)

congrats mr president

Do good work, sir.