I needed something more individual and complicated.

May 5, 2016 9:36 AM

Tattoos and Disability: "I’m not myself without this body, and you know what? I like myself. I’m not supposed to, and getting here was scary and took a long time but now that I am, I don’t plan on leaving. [...] Putting this art on my body, setting it apart even further from others, made me realize that disability is nothing if not queer. Think broadly: curious, odd, different, outside of our norms. Disability will do that to your body, orientation be damned."
posted by Anonymous (7 comments total)

As a queer woman with tattoos and cerebral palsy, I feel like I could have written this myself. Having the choice to do something to my body instead of my body doing something to me is amazing. It gives me a sense of ownership, that I can control my body when frequently that's simply not true.

I especially liked the bit about giving people a reason to look at her, as opposed to them looking out of pity. I've never thought of it that way, and it certainly isn't a conscious thing, but maybe that's why I sport blue hair and leather and an 80s haircut. If I'm going to be different I want it to be on my terms.

Thank you for posting this.
posted by aclevername at 10:04 AM on May 5, 2016 [14 favorites]

That was brilliant.
posted by Smibbo at 10:17 AM on May 5, 2016

I've often considered a tattoo for the same reasons as the author. However, due to some of my medical conditions, I'm at a high risk for infection even at the cleanest shop and scrupulous aftercare. So the potential risk and the reward don't quite balance out for me. But I applaud the author.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:21 AM on May 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

That was a pretty great piece.

About a month ago, I went to a conference-related event on Disability Poetry, since my Cousin-Uncle Jim works in the field. Tattoos were a common theme in a fair number of the poems, but there didn't seem to be many visible ones — a clef behind an ear; a peace symbol on a wrist. I was kinda struck by how so many of the pieces mentioned tattoos but assumed that they were covered up. People were definitely dressed to perform the role "Academic Poet," and having so many in a room together was striking — I don't think I've seen that many earnest berets since high school.

(Final pedantic note: The grammar isn't actually wrong — "Cooler people than me" is correct, and "Cooler people than I" is incorrect in standard American English. "Me" is the object of the phrase; "me" is the objective case. An easy spot check for "whom" use is to substitute "him," "Cooler people than him" versus "Cooler people than he." Or: "I am cooler than them; they are cooler than me." Substituting the subjective case for the objective is an affectation of pretentiousness, not something someone should feel guilty about omitting.)
posted by klangklangston at 11:44 AM on May 5, 2016 [3 favorites]

I was taught that “cooler than I” is technically correct because the full sentence would read “cooler than I am,” with the “am” being unspoken but understood in the same way that “you” is the unspoken subject of an imperative sentence. Not that it really matters when all is said and done.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:49 PM on May 5, 2016 [4 favorites]

Yes, TUM, that's the first thing I thought, too. Potato, potahto.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:02 PM on May 5, 2016

Sorry, sidelined.

The article is great, stoneweaver. I think it's easy for people to fail to look beyond the disability to the actual human being. If it takes a tattoo to bring them in focus, that's all to the good.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:49 PM on May 5, 2016