My English/Journalism teacher always told me that a good article answers all 5 w's (and one h to be exact) in the first paragraph. And I can accomodate that to a point. Who? Me, the Faerie. What? A tattoo. When? Saturday, January 15th 2000. Where? At Skin Illustrations on 87th. How? Well see, a tattoo artist takes this motorized needle contraption and repeatedly gouges the skin with ink, thus leaving a permanant piece of art.
Why? Well, that's gonna take a little more than a paragraph.
I remember when I was younger, and my dad was in his "I'm gonna build a Harley someday" phase, he came home with this HUGE bandage on his arm. I was concerned until he explained that for the last four hours he had been getting a tattoo and I could see it later.
I had seen tattoos before, but this one was awesome, overtaking his whole upper arm. He had chosen a rose in bloom with a large snake slithering through the petals. And floating just above was a small butterfly. It was full of color and just plain cool! At that moment, my dad was the epitome of cool. I decided I too would have one someday. Boy, was I niave.
As I got older and realized what exactly getting a tattoo entailed, ie: having someone repeatedly thrust a needle with ink into the skin, I was not so sure. More like - NO WAY JOSE! I did not like pain. Not one bit. Hell, getting my ears pierced was THEE most tramatic experience of my life, right next to getting shots. If I couldn't get stuck once for immunization without shedding a tear, what made me think I could stand having someone draw a picture in similar fashion?
But time passes. I eventually forgot about immuniztion trauma and piercings. I started seriously thinking about a tattoo.
It would have to be small though, and something of my own. I had a friend who did tattoos. Excellent work he did. Many of my friends had gotten theirs from him and they were awesome. So I comtemplated it and drew and doodled. But I lost track of my friend and just sorta gave up on the idea.
Time passes. Enter Benism. I've been friends with Matty for years and every time I'd seen him the last few times he always asked "are you gonna be a Benist for me?" And everytime I answered yes, but never got around to it until the summer of '99. So I submitted a profile, became the Benist Faerie. Many of the Benists I had already know for quite some time and they were some of the greatest friends I ever had. And then when I met the others I grew to love them just as much. The core of this group is a set of people that you can count on always. They are the kind of people who you will always consider lucky to count as your friends. So it was with ease that I decided to get a "Benist" tattoo. ( and of course Ben's ego is now permantly too big)
The design is mine for the most part. I didn't pick it off a wall. MY art on my body permanantly. The title of Benist Faerie underneath will never be regretted contrary to some opinions. It is a permanant record of a time of my life that hopefully will never end. If for some reason, I were to lose all and complete contact with the Benists I would always have a reminder of some of the best friends in the world and some of the best times ever had.