Presenting the Man with Two-Faces
Tattoo Done in 2018 and 2019 by Dora of Earthship Studios
I know we each have struggled over the last 6 weeks, parents are balancing working from home, become their children's teachers and full-time entertainers. Many are laid off, balancing all of this while figuring out how to keep a roof over their heads and food in the fridge. Then there are those of us working from home, therapists, balancing our own struggle and the struggle of 40+ clients a week. And if you're me, you may also be balancing caring for a sick parent, teaching classes online, running multiple non-profits and feeling like a break, a loss of momentum will just end in a mental breakdown that is not worth having. And on good days, you'll make art and send it to the people you love, you'll message the people that have been on your mind or that have weighted on your heart. You'll garden and cook, enjoy the sun in those moments you can, you will wax and wane like all of the things that are worth having in life.
When I read this back to myself I hear the themes that I live in and outside of this pandemic. The waxing and waning of the moon, the ebb and flow of the ocean, life and death itself. I love living in between dualities, it's my most comfortable place when I reflect on how I see myself in life, in my body, in my gender, in everything really. It's like my two favorite types of places are wild fields full of flowers, the joy of the buzzing bees in the sun and that distinct earthy smell when it rains. Then there are sandy beaches, the cool ocean air, rocks and succulents, ocean grass swaying in the sun and that tumultuous gray and turquoise during a storm. It takes a lot of talent and deep understanding to capture that in art and in a tattoo, it takes real talent, effort and an understanding of the person you're tattooing.
Which leads me to Dora and Earthship Studios. Dora and Heather and this place has got to be one of the most magical places full of the most magical women. I only have nice and kind things to say about them as people and as artists.
My first skull tattoo was done by Dora in 2018 as a cover up. I had a pastel shooting star on my right forearm, it was my first ever tattoo and a horrible experience. The tattoo itself was fine, nothing special, basic white girl shit by an okay artist who was not a pleasant person to be around. I was given zero guidance on tattoos at the time and followed the instructions to wash and 3x a day and use ointment on it and yet it got infected. I was 18 in a family that DID NOT like my piercing or hair let alone the addition of a tattoo. When I asked the artists what to do I got horrible lecture about being another irresponsible, wannabe girl who would never cut it. That is the memory that tattoo held, it held misogyny, patriarchal oppression, it reminded me of a time in my life where I let people treat me that way. I had grown immensely from that point and it felt incredibly fitting to have Dora to create a coverup that expressed that growth and encompassed that change. That is how my green desert sugar skull was born, it completely covered and reinvented that part of my body. I felt stronger, braver, more fierce when Dora was done. We later added the wild flower field skull, a total opposite in color, nature and composition and yet similar, two halves to the whole, to sides to the same coin. Together they made me feel whole again in an oddly therapeutic way.
I should also note that during that time I was going through a deeply personal process of questioning and processing my own gender. I love being a woman, I spent most of my life recognizing most with my femininity and at the same time I also help some very masculine and important qualities and feelings with no real name for it that felt right. What Dora didn't know, but I hope she knows after reading this, is that the duality of these skulls, their stark beauty and symbol of death, the growth of wild flowers and the strong edgy succulents also encapsulated that life long struggle and helped me come to terms with being gender queer and feeling seen, accepted, and understood without the conversation needing to be had or explained. It was an intuitive process between two people who I like to think became friends.
Dora, thank you for seeing me, I see you, and you are fabulous.
