Sunday morning in my head

[truepenny]

So between the insomnia and the anxiety dreams (all clothing related, for some bizarre reason I wot not of), I think we can conclude that I'm stressed about something. No, don't ask me what. I DON'T KNOW. But it means that my thought processes have gotten simultaneously weirder and slower, so I can sort of watch my brain work. Like the Glass Cat's.

So, as I have been for several years now, I am thinking about getting a tattoo. I almost got one at Fourth Street, but bailed on account of the tattoo artist not seeming to understand what I wanted. But I have a birthday coming up (my thirty-fifth, which seems sort of pseudo-significant), and I'm thinking about it again. (Parenthetically, if anyone in the Madison area has recommendations about tattoo artists, please please please comment or email or something.) One of the designs I have been considering, on and off, is Dyson Cieslewisc's rabbit (the left-hand rabbit), from "Dexterity," my episode of Shadow Unit. Different reasons than Dice, but, well. And the thought crossed my mind again this morning, for reasons I can no longer reconstruct. Which is where we join the stream of consciousness in progress:

Int.
GUILDENSTERN: It is a very cool rabbit.
ROSENCRANTZ: But it's wrong. Year of the Tiger, not Year of the Rabbit.
GUILDENSTERN: Tigers are cool, too. A tiger tattoo could be pretty awesome.
ROSENCRANTZ: Wait a second. That's the Chinese Zodiac. That's cultural appropriation.
GUILDENSTERN: Shit, that's right. We'll have to--
[crackle of static]
THE RADIO: "It's the eye of the tiger / It's the thrill of the fight"
ROSENCRANTZ: [moans] Oh no, no, no, no, no.
THE RADIO: "Standing up to the challenge of our rivals"

Ext.
[Truepenny comes into the study from the kitchen]
[Mirrorthaw takes off his headphones]
TRUEPENNY: My brain is cursed.
MIRRORTHAW: Cursed?
TRUEPENNY: I have the acoustic cover of "Eye of the Tiger"* stuck in my head, and if that isn't a curse, I don't know what is.
MIRRORTHAW: Can I change the station?
TRUEPENNY: I don't know how!
[Truepenny exits back to kitchen, singing "It's the eye of the tiger / it's the thrill of the fight"]
[Mirrorthaw resumes his headphones]

Int.
GUILDENSTERN: Turn it off!
ROSENCRANTZ: Where's the off-switch?
GUILDENSTERN: There is no fucking off-switch!
ROSENCRANTZ: [shouting at ceiling] STOP IT THIS INSTANT! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!
THE RADIO: [triumphantly] "EYEEEEEEEEEE ... of the tiger"
[pause]
[Rosencrantz & Guildenstern look around warily]
THE RADIO: "Won't you ease on down, ease on down the road?"
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN: [simultaneous facepalms]

Ext.
[enter Truepenny to the study again]
[Mirrorthaw takes off his headphones and waits]
TRUEPENNY: I have proof that I was IRRETRIEVABLY WARPED by junior high school chorus.
MIRRORTHAW: [looks alarmed]
TRUEPENNY: In my head, "Eye of the Tiger" segues immutably into "Ease On Down the Road." Because we did medleys. "Eye of the Tiger," "Ease On Down the Road."
MIRRORTHAW: Are you sure I can't change the channel? Where's the remote? Everything comes with a remote these days.
TRUEPENNY: Ah, but I was made before 1980.
MIRRORTHAW: Oh god that's right. There is no remote.
TRUEPENNY: Not even one with a cord.
MIRRORTHAW: Just push-buttons.
TRUEPENNY: Maybe some dials.
MIRRORTHAW: And I don't know where they are!

Int.
ROSENCRANTZ: [timidly] The rabbit's from a netsuke. Does that mean it's no good, either?
GUILDENSTERN: Dunno. There's always the labyrinth idea. Or the octopus. Or get somebody to design a sort of catfish-dragon thing.
ROSENCRANTZ: [ponders]
GUILDENSTERN: [ponders]
THE RADIO: "It's the eye of the tiger ..."


---
*Mirrothaw found it somewhere, because The Internet Is Full Of Things.

Comments

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

Are your brains also pink and swirly?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

There is that distinct possibility.

[mirrorthaw.livejournal.com]

The cover is from one of three possible places*:

http://coverfreak.com/

http://coverlaydown.com/

http://covermesongs.blogspot.com/

When I played it for truepenny the first time she just about busted a seam laughing.

*nope, can't be bothered to figure out which one right now.

[strigine.livejournal.com]

I didn't know we were the same age! I got my first tattoo for my thirty-fifth birthday back in April. (first and only, so far, still thinking about what else I want)

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

If you got an octopus tattoo, we could be octopus twins. And speaking of octopoda, do you know where the original plot octopus picture comes from, or what search string will find it?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Better than Wonder Twins any day.

I don't know where that octopus is from. matociquala got it from somebody (suricattus, maybe?), but I have no idea what its provenance is before that.

(My Plot Octopus is the octopus at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific (http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/) (Northern Pacific Gallery (http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/exhibits/northern_pacific_gallery/)), photograph by mirrorthaw.)

[mevincula.livejournal.com]

OH do the tattoo. For 28 years I've been meaning to get one and have never quite managed even though I've spent hours (days!) designing the mythical object (a rose and thorn combination based on an Aubrey Beardsley illustration). I actually had an appointment for the tattoo at age 18 - then I sprained my ankle getting off the bus directly in front of the shop & spent the day in the emergency room... that was as close as I got.

Incidentally, Eye of the Tiger was one of my bete noirs - I've hated it since right about the same time of that first tattoo attempt. And then I happened to see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Fz_egtEgc
one night when I decided to watch a Supernatural episode online(a mediocre show, but the boys are cute so I watch occasionally). I laughed so hard that the song no longer irritates me - it makes me laugh.

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

I'm now imagining a tattoo of a rabbit riding an octopus who's boxing Mr. T in a labyrinth.

That would be the greatest tattoo EVER! :-)

[frostedelves.livejournal.com]

Oo, a catfish-dragon sounds nifty and makes me want to go sketch. Is there a particular reason for that combination of beasts?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

1. I have an inordinate fondness for both catfish and dragons, and they tend to crop up in my work.
2. Dragon tattoos are deeply cliched, and yet? I love them.
3. My story, "Darkness, As A Bride" (Cemetery Dance #58), features a monster who is clearly a catfish-dragon:

When the sun was a handspan above the horizon, the sea monster arrived, a massive creature, whiskered like a catfish, maned and mantled. Its eyes were great lamps in its ponderous skull, its teeth like scimitars. It drew itself partway out of the sea, its webbed front feet splayed against the rocky beach, and looked under its magnificent tufted eyebrows from the huddled group of men to the virgin standing straight and unyielding against the rock.

[edited to CLOSE TAG]

[frostedelves.livejournal.com]

Thank you for satisfying my curiosity!

1 & 2. Both perfectly understandable, and I think I know what you mean about 2. I love looking at full-back Japanese dragon tattoos in particular, and always tell myself I really can't have one since I'm not even a little bit Japanese.

3. Thank you! Lovely description, and it gives me a nice clear visual.

[connatic]

I just got a nice tattoo for my 40th birthday (a colorful striding Anubis); I encourage you to find the right place, the right design, and then have it done.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

If you change your mind afterwards, it will be too late, you will permanently have the art stuck on your body. And you're only 35. Would you still like what you'd have chosen when you were 25? How about 15? So how do you know what the heck you'll like when you're 45 or 70?
Couldn't you just get it on t-shirts? That way you could have rabbit and dragon and... the IIIIIIIIIIIIII of the tiger!