Tattooing, very simply put, is blood magic
October 30, 2017 8:57 PM Subscribe
Two interviews with Noel'le Longhaul, trans tattoo artist and witch.
"For me, learning tattooing was really wrapped up in my process of learning to be trans and what that meant for me. It was a way to take a fraught, complicated, and largely unaided relationship with my body and try to have it more on my terms."
"I also think that tattooing, very simply put, is blood magic and I think that it’s something that is inherently very intense to do... any time we intentionally change our bodies, we’re doing magic, and I think that doing that in a way that feels intentional and feels respectful and consensual is also the ways in which those things overlap."
The interviews are interesting, but it is okay just to look at their pretty pictures.
Longhaul's Instagram.
Longhaul's pronouns are she/her and they/them
"For me, learning tattooing was really wrapped up in my process of learning to be trans and what that meant for me. It was a way to take a fraught, complicated, and largely unaided relationship with my body and try to have it more on my terms."
"I also think that tattooing, very simply put, is blood magic and I think that it’s something that is inherently very intense to do... any time we intentionally change our bodies, we’re doing magic, and I think that doing that in a way that feels intentional and feels respectful and consensual is also the ways in which those things overlap."
The interviews are interesting, but it is okay just to look at their pretty pictures.
Longhaul's Instagram.
Longhaul's pronouns are she/her and they/them
For those of us who are uninitiated and ignorant about such things, what is “blood magic”?
Noel’le Longhaul: I don’t think that's a question I can answer in this interview, I’m sorry
This exchange made me grin. Yeah, some things you just don’t want to go into in an interview like that.
posted by egypturnash at 9:41 PM on October 30, 2017 [3 favorites]
Noel’le Longhaul: I don’t think that's a question I can answer in this interview, I’m sorry
This exchange made me grin. Yeah, some things you just don’t want to go into in an interview like that.
posted by egypturnash at 9:41 PM on October 30, 2017 [3 favorites]
i found this one from their site particularly impressive.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 9:47 PM on October 30, 2017
posted by mrjohnmuller at 9:47 PM on October 30, 2017
My first exposure to this culture came from seeing a Modern Primitive magazine, circa 1992. It gave me the sneaking suspicion I was already well behind a curve. Talking about it with a friend, the mutual decision to defer any sort of body art was based on a conclusion there was no single image that, as much as it appeals to me right now, I wouldn't likely find callow or cliché later in life. The hypothetical solution was a coffee cup on its platter.
Having reached that era, we probably made the right choice, but I am told by discriminating women half my age that sleeves are sexy (on men, I believe it was implied).
posted by lazycomputerkids at 10:36 PM on October 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
Having reached that era, we probably made the right choice, but I am told by discriminating women half my age that sleeves are sexy (on men, I believe it was implied).
posted by lazycomputerkids at 10:36 PM on October 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
As far as blood magic goes, working with one's own is the most noble among the art, somewhat in tandem with working with others consensually and without a power imbalance or coercive context.
Most people don't realize they practice predatory blood magic on a regular basis, taking the blood and life force of other beings non-consensually to profit themselves. It's sad that this reality has permitted the predatory arts to flourish so prolifically on this planet. And that I too feel so little power to alter the harmful practices embedded in our world and myself.
Framed one way magic can't exist if it is defined as that which innately does not exist. Framed another way, magic defined as power lends itself to simply being a description of the uses of power, and energetic powers are in fact reality, such as the physical power to heal by touch seen in kangaroo care and other studies done on the power of human contact/relationships/ and touch.
Beautiful interview about taking some of these practices back from toxic violence and the assumption of male violence which I believe we are in an era of healing and transforming. I remember walking into a tattoo shop where almost an entire wall was a picture of a woman tied up naked (and clearly in distress) and the sense that this was definitely not the place for me.
posted by xarnop at 6:12 AM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Most people don't realize they practice predatory blood magic on a regular basis, taking the blood and life force of other beings non-consensually to profit themselves. It's sad that this reality has permitted the predatory arts to flourish so prolifically on this planet. And that I too feel so little power to alter the harmful practices embedded in our world and myself.
Framed one way magic can't exist if it is defined as that which innately does not exist. Framed another way, magic defined as power lends itself to simply being a description of the uses of power, and energetic powers are in fact reality, such as the physical power to heal by touch seen in kangaroo care and other studies done on the power of human contact/relationships/ and touch.
Beautiful interview about taking some of these practices back from toxic violence and the assumption of male violence which I believe we are in an era of healing and transforming. I remember walking into a tattoo shop where almost an entire wall was a picture of a woman tied up naked (and clearly in distress) and the sense that this was definitely not the place for me.
posted by xarnop at 6:12 AM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
I got a large tattoo from them 3 years ago and they were really amazing to work with; I've never felt more cared for and at ease while getting tattooed. They're a lovely person.
posted by ITheCosmos at 12:03 PM on October 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ITheCosmos at 12:03 PM on October 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
I got my very first tattoo with Noel'le, and it was probably the best possible first-tattoo experience I could have had. Plus their artwork is fantastic.
posted by eviemath at 1:58 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by eviemath at 1:58 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
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many of my friends have worked with them, and i really appreciate the results. magic is the appropriate word for most things they do.
posted by i deserved this at 9:07 PM on October 30, 2017 [3 favorites]