The Tattooed Poets Project: Sean M. Damlos-Mitchell

I met Sean Damlos-Mitchell last summer at the NYC Poetry Festival on Governor's Island.

I snapped this photo of his arm:

The phrase So it goes [from Slaughterhouse-Five] is circled by Memento Mori.

In a nutshell, Sean wrote to me explaining the tattoo:

"Love & death. As though there is anything else. Memento Mori - being reminded of one's mortality. Vonnegut. The lower piece is by José Guadalupe Posada - The Revolutionary Goes to War. Love & belief; putting up a fight; trying still."

The top part of the tattoo was done by Brian at Enchanted Dragon Tattoos in Tucson, Arizona. the Posada piece was done by Terry Tapp, formerly of Crazy Monkey Tattoo in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Sean sent me the following poem:


            STRANGE FEELS

consider a creative process of dealing
with grief, just one creative way

to deal with grief is to throw it under a bridge

another is by righteously hyperextending
an arm, allowing its fingerprints to process

in the end nothing is so effective as giving up

convictions in exchange for virginity – exactly
how I became enlightened re: my limitations

a necessary step in overcoming ways I felt; I feel

there were people then who were ghostly everywhere
even the secret places I'd go to trench my frailties

~ ~ ~

Sean M. Damlos-Mitchell holds an MFA from The New School & is a rather friendly and endearing fellow, possessing smooth skin & a knowing glance. He has previously published poems in Whole Beast Rag, Poem Tiger, The Mackinac, & Hot Street. Additionally, he is the author of SINCERELY SPACEMAN, a chapbook by The New Megaphone.

Thanks to Sean for his contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

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