Tattoo Tweet Expanded

Originally on Twitter [Expanded for blog purposes]:

Not an expert, but as an artist who's done pro work and in this writing game for 20+ years, if your OCs/characters have tattoos (personal, cultural, or group/gang/syndicate), for the Love of G*d, change them up! They're IPs, many are culturally-unique, and a number are attached to investigated groups.(End)

The reason I say this is, I don't see much creative information about portraying tattoos and other skin art in prose or in illustrative or sequential artwork. What I have learned is, though I bear no tats myself, nor will I ever (personal, spiritual, and health reasons, and fear-of-needles phobia), I appreciate, respect, and enjoy tattoos on others because this form of art is so unique and personal to those who wear them. First and foremost, commercial tattoos whether done by a pro or an amateur, are IPs or Intellectual property. They can be considered copyright ©️ as the tattoo artist/practitioner is creating it. Someone else's skin is simply their paper or canvas.

For cultural purposes, it becomes even more mired. When a tattoo is from a particular culture, there is a lot of significance placed on certain images and symbolism only known within the group/community. It's why when outsiders get tattoos like this, they not only mess up the meaning, but they offend the culture and are shamed for it. Also, in several global indigenous cultures around the world, tattoo artists aren't only seen as a profession, but as a spiritual calling. Which is why skin artists and skin art is prayed and meditated over before they start. There are even rituals tied into these procedures long before the ink even touches the recipient's skin!

Now we come to the last part... Which should terrify most of us. Prison and secret society/gang/synidicate/organized crime tattoos. I can't stress enough that as an artist and writer to carefully consider making up one's own tattoos in these cases as well. I mean, a lot of these tats are marked identifiers to police and the FBI/CIA and other bodies of global law enforcement. It's simply not worth it. 

Life is becoming stranger than fiction

More political strife when people are now mentioning the White House TV drama being ordinary and plausible.

House of Cards
Mad Men

Moby Dick

And comic book villains

Mortal Kombat
The modern-day Mafia
Red Mafya (what Russian organized crime is called)
La Costra Nostra
The Godfather
The Twilight Zone
The Eye of Sauron (from the Lord of the Rings)

Absolutely ridiculous that some screwed up people still think this is all normal. And I don't digress...

Writing in Ethnicity - Art of Plugging Away

Now, because I'm working on this new short story, have I abandoned the dog historical drama?
Perish the thought!

I've spent the better part of over two years working on this story, and much of my life from 6th grade summer school trying to figure out how to write it!

Now that I have 13 filled journals and a stockpile of empty ones, as well as time and money put into purchasing a reference LIBRARY alone for this novel, there is NO WAY.

Just this week, an employee of mine asked, while we lunched together, if with this story, what kind of dog breeds I use for the different ethnic groups, and I remember a young friend asked a similar question.

The young friend feared that I, even using non-human characters, would settle into stereotypes.
Because societal viewpoints are constantly on my mind as a creative type, I often want to go against the grain.

I don't appreciate when others take the easy way. I strive to make stories that I know I would read, that I would prefer watching.

I assured my young friend then, and my employee this week, that I use not only breeds indigenous to a region/country/nation, but I work on creating an individual first.

Also, because it's New York, have numerous mix-bred dogs (I just love mutts! Both cats and dogs!).

Consequentially, history reveals that organized crime had people of many ethnicities working together for the common bad! Though the Italian mob is more widely known, serialized, idolized, satirized and mythologized, it was NOT the established mob of the U.S.

This distinction actually went to the Irish, who, when the exodus of Southern Italians came to American shores, ran up against a brick wall: the Irish, in earlier years, harassed, oppressed, and racially held back, had established themselves in parts of American society where other Americans, who were called 'Nativists' then, couldn't touch: in politics, the police, and an in-grained infrastructure within the underworld.

By the '30s, the ethnic groups who were controlling most of organized crime weren't just the Irish and the Italians. There were the Jews, the Germans, the Polish, and the Blacks!
There is much of what I assumed, that has fallen apart since I began this story anew. I hope to see it through and let it open eyes as it has opened mine.