Elonna's Skeleton Represents Two Paths

Last month in Central Park, I met Elonna, who is a friend of my daughter, Jolee. Elonna was joining us in seeing The Tempest  at the Delacorte Theater.

It didn't take me long to notice one of  Elonna's tattoos on her left arm:

Elonna got this about four years ago during her sophomore year in college, at Fat Ram's Pumpkin Tattoo in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

Elonna explained the origin of this tattoo:

"My freshman year of college I was at ... Simmons College studying biology and pre-medicine, and then I transferred to Boston University for costume design. So, I did a huge life shift at that point and I wanted to commemorate my time, both as costume designer and also as what my previous life was going to be ... I was thinking, a dress form, a mannequin, something like that ... and then I realized how popular that was a tattoo in my field of business, it's very very common to have dress forms and mannequins, I don't really know why, but I didn't really want to have just that.  I wanted something that incorporated the previous life that I was going to choose in it ... so I chose the skeleton because it's the human form and the human figure is what draws me in to these careers and that's kind of what interests me in both of them ... even though I don't want to work on the inside of bodies, I want to work on the outside ... and then I also thought him holding a doctor's bag, that's more really like to incorporate the dead dreams of becoming a doctor ... I told [the artist] that I didn't want it to be a very animated skeleton, I wanted it to be like one that's hanging in science classrooms that you had all throughout middle school." 

Out of curiosity, I asked Elonna if the skeleton had a name. She replied, "My mom calls him Mr. Bones, or Rex, because she hates the tattoo, but I don't really have a name for him.

Thanks to Elonna for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Jacqui Morton

Today's tattooed poet is Jacqui Morton, who shares these three dandelion seeds:

Jacqui explains:

"My tattoo was done at Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo in Jamaica Plain, MA, by Melissa Baker. I’ll never forget Melissa’s voice or the way she let me hug her when she finished. She took great care in listening to what I was looking for and showing me a drawing. I had this in mind but when she put it on paper it all made sense. It’s my first tattoo, and I got at age 38, three years after I lost a baby. I now have two sons. This tattoo helps me keep that baby girl here with them --- my three little seeds, all floating in their own direction."

This poem Jacqui sent ties in with the tattoo:

For Jennifer

This poem is for Jennifer

because she called

when the midwife

didn’t, past five on Friday.

For Jennifer because

later, after the results

and the tears, and after

the cupcakes shielded

from tears were eaten

at a second birthday party

which must have

happened at my house, 

she helped me

make the appointment.

For Jennifer because

she said she would send

her sister to that doctor.

For her, because

she said the baby is a girl

instead of the words

I hoped to hear later:

It’s a girl.

This poem is for Jennifer

because it is her job to call

people like me with results

like those.

 - Jacqui Morton, 2012

~ ~ ~

Jacqui adds, "I terminated my pregnancy after a really sad diagnosis. Jennifer was the genetic counselor. This poem was previously published in my chapbook, Turning Cozy Dark.

Jacqui Morton's poems and essays have appeared in places such as Drunk Monkeys, The Mom Egg Review, the Guardian, Salon, Role Reboot, and The Rumpus. She is the author of a baby book of poems and is working on a memoir. Jacqui is a doula and freelance writer in Massachusetts, and is the managing editor for The Citron Review. Visit her on Twitter or at jacquimorton.com