My Whole Expanse I Cannot See…

I formulate infinity stored deep inside of me…

Jun 18

Tattoo Crisis 2010

Category: Life,Tattoos

Oops...

So, I keep tweeting about Tattoo Crisis 2010, which in turn ends up on my Facebook page, and since I haven’t explained Tattoo Crisis 2010, a lot of people are confused.

Two Thursdays ago I decided I wanted my thirty-ninth tattoo. I have this list in my head of the tattoos I want, and I just knock them out whenever I feel like it. Things usually go absolutely fine, thirty-eight times everything went fine. This time, though, this time I did something astonishingly stupid. There’s this PJ Harvey song, The Devil, the last three lines of the song are beautiful, and I’ve wanted them as a tattoo for awhile. So, before I went out I listened to the song a bunch, and I looked up the lyrics at Metrolyrics.com, just to make sure I didn’t mis-hear anything. I always check, but this particular evening I only bothered to check the one site. I was all, “Yep, that looks the way I hear it, let’s go!” I didn’t check other sites, and in another BRILLIANT move I didn’t check PJ Harvey’s site, not until the next day anyway. Apparently, I fucked up a word, “finally” should read “formerly,” which is really more perfect than I thought. I was stupid, thoughtless, needlessly impulsive. This is hands down one of the dumbest things I’ve done in a very long time.

So, I can’t just leave it, I can’t have a typo on my chest for the rest of my life. I’m going to fix it, it’s not going to be the most elegant fix, but the mess of it will be a constant reminder to slow down sometimes, to think before I do. I’ll post again when things read as they should.

I know, I’m an idiot.

7 comments

7 Comments so far

  1. shann June 18th, 2010 2:27 pm

    You know Freud and Jung both reckoned there are no accidents… all of this appears to have produced a very cool Zen line – I vote you keep it as it is mate: much more interesting elements invested in here than if you’d just copied it word for word.

  2. michael June 18th, 2010 2:32 pm

    shann: I so can’t leave it, I can’t just leave a typo.

  3. Greg June 21st, 2010 12:34 pm

    We all make mistakes. it’s ok. it’s what makes us human. I would do a blatent cross out and right “formerly” above it. imagine how long it took PJ to come up with the lyrics…

  4. CountessM June 28th, 2010 10:18 am

    I second Gregg’s thoughts and idea. I love tattoos, but not for me, for others, and I think it is a map of your soul, like wrinkles, or scars. This is a record, a visual record that sometimes things get lost in the translation, or misunderstood. But in the end, they right themselves. So go forward, correct it, and do not feel remorse for what has been done. You can’t un-ring the bell.

    Move forward,let it stand for what it is, a human error that you have been able to correct, though not perfect, it is fixable.

  5. Otávio Pacheco June 30th, 2010 1:56 am

    Well, I am wanting a tattoo for a long time, but I’m not able to decide what I want tattooed. I’m wondering about it for some years, yes, years. I guess I need to take some action and finally do it.

  6. Monica July 3rd, 2010 10:50 pm

    How about a good tattoo image coverup? Way cheaper than removal.

  7. Kate March 23rd, 2011 11:54 am

    Many artists don’t post their lyrics on their websites. I wouldn’t have thought to check there either. I just started reading your blog and am going reverse-chronologically, so I already saw the sweet fix-up you had done. It looks intentional; I wouldn’t have thought it was an error.