Tuesday, January 17th 2006
THE Tattoo
I saw a tattoo when I was living in Provincetown in 2000. It belonged to a friend of mine. It was the most detailed, precise piece I had ever seen. It also was extremely reflective of the owner. It had been designed by an artist named Stevie Moon who used to reside in Boston but moved to Ft. Lauderdale. I also found out that Stevie specialized in custom designs catetered to ones specific personality or some other piece of information. I arranged a small weekend trip to Fla. I called Stevie and asked if he had time for a consult. The entire thing took 5 mins, he looked at my other pieces and chatted a bit. It turned out we had a lot of the same friends. After he had seen my work, he asked me a couple of key questions and that was it. He told me in about 6 mos. he would have enough time to have it ready and I should periodically call and check up on progress before coming down.
After what seemed like a year I called in and found out that he had something in mind and I should plan on coming down soon. Mind you, I had no idea what he had come up with. No image, no gist or vague description. I trusted this procedure just as I trusted that I would continue to breathe. I walked in to the parlor and saw what he had come up with. It was just what you see before you on print and video. There was nothing for me to input; nothing left to improve. It was fucking Mozart. I hopped in the chair, grabbed a couple of books and 10 hrs. later, my identity was complete.
