The Tattooed Poets Project: Jim Landwehr's Memorial Musky

Our next tattooed poet is Jim Landwehr, who shares this tattoo of a musky:

Jim tells us the story of why there is a Musky on his arm:

In 2010 my brother had a 10" tumor removed from his back. After 6 months of recovery, he had numbness in his foot. He was rushed to Mayo for emergency surgery and another golf-ball sized tumor was removed. 3 days later the oncologist said the cancer had spread to his lungs and he would have months, not years to live. After battling cancer for 9 months, he passed away on August 30th of 2011. He was 47 years old. 

My brother Rob and I were both avid fishermen. When he caught his first Musky in 2006, the fever hit me. Two months after his death, on what would have been his 48th birthday, I managed to catch a 34" musky in his honor while wearing a sweatshirt he had given me before he passed away. It was a very emotional day for me.

I got the a tattoo of a musky in his honor in April of 2013.

The date I caught the fish, 10/14/11 (his birthday) is worked into the spinner of the tattoo. In a related side-story, on the same day I got the tattoo, my wife and 80 year old mother both got their first tattoos as well, by Aaron at Anchors End Tattoo in Hudson, WI. My mother's was an anklet with 7 hearts for her 7 children, two of them hollow for my brother Rob (above) and sister Linda who died at age 5 of a Wilmes tumor. The artist said 'Well, not to be morbid, but what if you should lose another child, what would we do with the heart?' She replied, 'Oh don't worry about that, I'm jumping off a bridge if another one of my kids precedes my death.' That's my mom, 80 years and spunky.

So, the day I got this tattoo will always be a memorable one. My wife and mom were part of it and I love the tattoo. It's a part of me and brings me closer to my brother somehow.

Jim sent along this poem, which is a great companion piece to the tattoo: 

One Cast                                                                                

My daughter wanted to catch a Musky

With her dad

My family has a long fishing tradition

My brothers Tom, Rob, Paul and I

Each caught a Musky

And she wanted to be part of it;

The Musky part

Now, Rob was in heaven

God called him there at age 47

To help scout Smallmouth

Because He was having trouble Himself

But when Rob heard about Sarah,

He said to God, “Here’s the deal…

I’ll help you, if you help her.”

Then Rob said, “One cast.”

God dropped his jaw.

“But you know that just doesn’t happen.”

Rob wouldn’t budge

“One cast.”

“They’re the fish of 10,000 casts,” God argued.

“I caught three smallmouth yesterday…” Rob said.

“But she’s using the wrong line and no leader!”

“One cast.”

On the first cast

The wrong lure

Thrown with the wrong rod

Using the wrong line

And no leader (wrong again)

Hit the water with a splash

And immediately erupted

With heavenly musky thunder

Rob turned to God and winked.

~ ~ ~

Jim Landwehr enjoys writing creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. His book Dirty Shirt: A Boundary Waters Memoir was recently accepted for publishing and will be released on 6/17/2014 by eLectio Publishing. He has non-fiction stories published in BoundaryWaters Journal, Forge Journal and MidWestOutdoors Magazine. His poetry has been featured in Verse Wisconsin, Torrid Literature Journal, Echoes Poetry Journal, Wisconsin People and Ideas Magazine, the Wisconsin Poets Calendar and HeavyBear online magazine. Jim lives and works in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

His website is here and he blogs here.

Thanks to Jim for sharing his awesome tattoo, the emotional story behind it, and the lovely poem here on the Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Sarah Certa

Today's tattooed poet is Sarah Certa.

Sarah's tattoo is simple, but powerful:

Photo by Sarah Certa

She even sent along a collage of the tattoo process:

Photos by Laura Martie

Why does a woman have a tattoo of the name "Johnny" on her arm? I'll let Sarah explain:

"My tattoo was done at Voodoo Tattoo in Big Lake, MN. It's on the inside of my left wrist, and it's my brother's name, Johnny, in my handwriting. He is two years younger than me and in the Army Infantry, currently deployed in southern Afghanistan. I got the tattoo this past fall, November 2012, about a month before he deployed, because I wanted to do something to show my support and admiration for him, and since I carry a strong needle phobia, this was a very big thing for me to do. It also serves as a reminder of strength, especially on hard days, to just keep going, the way he does..."

Sarah also sent us this poem, which is making its first appearance here:

The Wind

I’ve been eating way too much chocolate
these past few days, which really fucks up
my bikini-season diet, which is really
a ridiculous thing to waste time thinking about because regardless of my pant size
one day I’m going to die. This is not a newsflash
but every time I think about it, it’s as if I’m being beat
in the stomach with a baseball bat, and on it are the signatures
of everyone I’ve ever loved. It’s amazing
that I continue to recover from these assaults, that somehow
I get out of bed. I make coffee. Every day
I brush my teeth. I smooth Burt’s Bees chap-stick
on my lips, which are filled with blood, and how incredible
is that? How incredible, that I’m able to stand up
and put one foot in front of the other, shuffle forward
one small miracle at a time. How incredible, yet how
pathetic, as I sit here with my coffee and my diet, while nearly 2,000 miles away
my little brother is marching in the 5 AM rain with the rest
of his infantry platoon. He is already my hero,
the way he skydives into this life, so reckless yet good
to himself, raving about sushi like it’s his religion and sipping $90 whiskey
that’s almost as old as he is. You just keep going, he says. You’re not going to die
from running too much. I think about him
training for war this summer, hiking 25 miles
in the California desert with 60 pounds on his back, knowing
that soon he’ll be on foot in southern Afghanistan where he could
be blown to pieces at any minute, and already
each step he takes is an army-sized miracle, each breath the wind that pushes me
through another goddamn day.

~ ~ ~

Sarah Certa holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her poems appear in Country Music, The Bakery, B O D Y, and PANK, among other places. She is the Social Media Director for H_NGM_N, a contributing editor for Split Rock Review, and a freelance writer and photographer. Find her online at sarahcerta.tumblr.com.

Thanks to Sarah for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project! And a special thanks to her brother Johnny for his service to our country. We're wishing him our very best and pray for his safety while he is overseas.

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.