All Of Her Tattoos Have Wings - heather hughes is Our Tattooed Poet of the Week

Our next Tattooed Poet of the Week is heather hughes. She is sharing this tattoo:

heather tells us:

"I have four tattoos (at the moment), and of course I chose one that's difficult to photograph to send: a dragon silhouette on my left ribcage. The ink was done at Chameleon in Cambridge, MA, and I went there with 3 other poet friends who were also getting work. The art is based on drawings by Wayne Anderson that are featured in Peter Dickinson's book THE FLIGHT OF DRAGONS. 

I developed an obsession with fantasy, and dragons in particular, largely because of an 80s Rankin & Bass animated adaptation (which I still deeply love). When I went into the tattoo shop, I thought I was going to get this design much smaller, and on my left forearm. Instead, I walked out with a dragon next to my heart. I was coming out of a fragile headspace and had only recently recommitted myself to making art. My dragon reminds me that I can be fierce, that I can protect what matters most, that I can continue to believe in what seems impossible. He's found his way into a poem. And I expect that someday I will have another dragon tattoo to keep him company."

heather sent us the following poem:

Specter: Last Words

                                   

                                                Hollow      out

                                                              :               

                                                            spine

                                                                        and      binding

                                                                           —  open  —

                                                            thousandstarred spark                               

                        I           dream            your    funeral            speech

you      stammer         at         my       ghost

            leaving                        these   pages  to soak                        on    the   porch.

~ ~ ~

heather hughes hangs her heart in Boston and Miami. All of her tattoos have wings. Her poems have appeared in Bad Penny Review, Cream City Review, Grain, Hinchas de Poesía, and Prick of theSpindle, among others. She posts NaPoWriMo & letterpress experiments at dragonheartbeat.tumblr.com and can also be visited virtually at birdmaddgirl.com or @birdmaddgirl on twitter. 

Thanks to heather for contributing to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

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