Carnival, Time Lords & Tattoos.

[sebastienne]

The Cowley Road Carnival is something that I recommend anyone in the vicinity of Oxford to experience at some point or other. There was Borderville (of course), the glam-prog band I've been stalking, but this event was so much more than that - like the first time in my life that I recall seeing the female form being intensely erotic, sensual, beautiful, without being sexualised by some intangible "male gaze". A Victorian freakshow. People in industrial tubing that ate children. They shut off the Cowley Road - a main arterial road leading from the town centre to the ring road - all day, just for this. Parents were happy to let their kids play with a couple of goths blowing bubbles. And I felt very, very, proud to belong to a city like that. More proud still to belong to an area where, in the next general election, I can vote Pink & Green.



I was less proud, however, of the finale of Doctor Who. The Christian imagery is growing on me - not for nothing do I adore Wilde's fairy tales - but I was joking when I turned to my co-audients and cried, "she's John the fucking Baptist!" As for the psychic network? I suppose that "any technology advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic", but that does rather necessitate the "deus ex" feeling that I have with Every. Conclusion. Ever. I feel like J K Rowling's magic is more clearly defined, understood, and regulated than Russell T's "science". I still adore Lucy Saxon, loved her killing him in Snape/Dumbledore fashion, only to come back & pick up his genetic-code ring from the steaming pyre; adored the dykey scientist whom I just KNEW was going to betray them; but it seems as if Martha's family were only ever there as a reason to extract her from companionship. The Master's simple, classic, Dominant fantasy was, I think, just short of cliché - but oh, how much I enjoyed it. Maybe I want to be Lucy Saxon. Unsure. In short - flawed, but I think that on re-watching I'll be able to overlook them & enjoy the episode for what it is.



This morning I had Ashley henna my calves, just above the ankle bones, with the split-faces from Hedwig. We're going to refine the design, work with placement and size, but at the moment I am ecstatically happy with them. If this trial period works out, I'll be getting them tattooed permanently. The placement on the outside of the ankles doubles the meaningfullness of the symbol for me.. and it was heavy with meaning before.

In short, an excellent weekend, spent with fabulous people, in a spectacular city. I am running out of adjectives here, so I'll say goodnight.

Goodnight.

Comments

[ex-leighwoos982.livejournal.com]

*Gasp* a Monkey!
MonkeyMonkeyMonkeyMonkeyMonkeyMonkey

[steerpikelet.livejournal.com]

You got the tattoos! (for a bit.) Pics?
xx

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

bearing in mind that these are just "sketches"..

[stronglight.livejournal.com]

What is the significance of above the ankle bone? (If it's not private...) Still have new tattoos on my to-save-up-for list so if we have the funds at the same time, feel like going together? xx

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

Yay! Tattoo buddies :) I don't mind talking about the placement, it was just a little too wanky to include in the original post. I'm also attempting to point at visceral feelings with words, so don't imagine that I'm going to explain perfectly.

The tattoo itself never stood for the song really, never stood for "finding my other half"; it was a reminder that all my "halves" are in me already, that I can be anything I want to be, "east & west, slavery & freedom, man & woman, top & bottom". I am one complete person, and a million different people, after Oscar Wilde, after "Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)" (Whitman), after how I've always felt able to sustain conflicting views, knowing that something can be simultaneously right & wrong, black & white, yes & no.

The ankle-placement puts the two halves on parts of me that move independently, often in opposite directions, and yet work together to make me whole. If you'll forgive the crudeness (this is where words begin to fail feelings), the two halves are placed so that they must be split apart in order for me to let someone else in, which I find both erotic and accurate for my relationships. Handily, this is also a comment on how I feel about the Hedwig, which brings the origin of the images full-circle into all the meaning I've extrapolated from them.

Some of this has been very hard for me to put into words, so ask if you don't understand any; but those are the feelings driving me to ink my ankles.

[stronglight.livejournal.com]

Ah... you mean one section on either ankle, then? Rather than both on one? That makes a good deal of sense.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

That's right - one half on the outside of each ankle, with the "broken" sections towards the backs of my calves.

[neoanjou.livejournal.com]

Neil want to see piccies!

I'm very forgiving of religious imagery after having seen the final two Matrix films in which the nicely subtle/obscure references in the first were replaced with 'we're going to ram this down your throat now - muhahahaha' style references.

[sebastienne.livejournal.com]

bearing in mind that these are just "sketches"..

[vass]

That's a wonderful choice for a tattoo. And I like the choice of placement too.

(My tattoo's an ankle one as well: it's a line of Petrarch.)

Hedwig = love. (Yitzhak also = love - every time someone mentions HatAI, I wonder again why I haven't gotten around to making a Yitzhak icon.)

[deathbyshinies.livejournal.com]

The tattoos, as I think I might have spent about fifteen minutes drunkenly proclaiming on Sunday afternoon, are perfect, and one of the finest tattoo ideas I've ever heard.

The carnival was perfect, too.