case modding

Tattoos and piercings aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they are mine. I have tattoos. Five of them, in fact. And I fully intend to get more, even though I’m probably a smidgen too old for all that sort of thing. These have also been joined by a questionable piercing that I’ve recently been thinking about removing but, hell, ten years later I’ve kind of grown attached to it. Even now I find myself feeling slightly jealous of other people’s tattoos, wondering how they’d look on me or why I hadn’t thought of having a particular design myself.

My first was a two inch-long tribal piece on my right shoulder. I’d decided that I wanted a tattoo months before my 18th, and when my birthday finally rolled around, I was at the door of my local tattoo parlour as soon as I could (take that, Mum and Dad!). For a first tattoo, it’s pretty standard fare, taken from the sheets and sheets of flash work covering the walls. A year later, this was followed by the dragon down my left arm. A couple of months after my 20th birthday, and the weekend I left for university, the piercing arrived. In hindsight, I think I only chose to get pierced as I couldn’t come up with a decent idea for a tattoo and at least I could take it out if I got bored with it (I haven’t yet). Six years passed before I found myself under the needle again, with four stars across my abdomen. I had wanted them a bit lower than they actually are, but tattoos tend to get a bit permanent once you’ve started putting them on. A year later, a Roman numeral six at the base of my neck, and a Watchmen blood splatter completing the current set down the back of my right arm another year on.

Part of me has thought that the next tattoo should be to commemorate something, or to mark a significant event, but so far I’m happy to get inked solely for decoration’s sake. My next piece is going to be one of two things. At first I’d thought of getting a full or half sleeve on my right arm, but doubts started to creep in for a couple of reasons; firstly, the frankly prohibitive time and monetary cost involved in something that huge and, secondly, the fact that an alarming number of Premiership footballers seem to have them. The GW also brought up problems that could crop up at work if I had a giant koi carp or some flames creeping out from my shirt sleeves. This brings me to the second option, and a little document I’ve been working on called “Wisdom”.

For as far back as I can remember, I’ve stored this document on my flash drive, and I’ve been gradually filling it with quotes, snippets of dialogue and text that I thought were funny or sounded vaguely inspiring. This did at one point include a transcription of John Barnes’ rap from the England squad’s World Cup ‘90 song “World In Motion” (a.k.a. The Greatest Football Song Of All Time), so its actual inspirational value could be brought into question. Right now, this document stretches to 121 pages, and I’ve taken to highlighting things that I think might look good etched onto my skin. As pretentious as it’ll seem, I’ve decided that it most likely won’t be in English; as this tattoo is going to be for me, it doesn’t really matter if anyone else can immediately understand it. On top of that, I haven’t read quite enough classic English literature to have knowledge of literary passages to inspire me. Then came the dilemma as to where to put it; if it’s a long quote it’s probably end up down the left side of my ribcage, where I’m told tattoos actually hurt, or a smaller quote discreetly inked onto the inside of my right wrist or forearm. I’ve very nearly decided on what it’s going to be, now it’s just a matter of actually getting it done.

At the end of the day, I don’t regret any of my ink, and those who say it’s addictive are almost definitely correct. I don’t think I’m quite done with my body mods, and maybe not by a long chalk.

Advertisement