Greenville Ink...My Ink Tells a Story

Tattoos are amazing things.  It is one of the few true collaborative arts between the art and the artist.  When we came up with the idea for this project, we forgot about that.  We forgot about what these things mean and what even the name of the event means.  My ink tells a story.  It is a representation of a moment in time that was meant to be remembered.  It is a snapshot of an event.  It is about the remembrance of a loved one, about the celebration of love, and/or the capture of beauty.

For a few weeks in the planning of this event, I got to be the weird guy who talked to people about their tattoos in odd circumstances.  I talked to people in bars and in parking lots and I asked them who did their tattoos.  The link between the artist and the person getting the tattoo is s close one, but not many of the people I approached talked about their artists.

They would look at their tattoos and tell me about them.  They would tell me about what was going on in their lives that made them get the tattoo.  They would tell me how the day went and how the tattoo that they got was something that they had thought about for weeks, months, or years.  They would talk about what would make them take that fateful step and have something on their body that they would have to look at every time they stepped out of the shower.  They would have to endure people like me stopping them in parking lots and asking them about them.

Some people want them to be seen.  Some put them in a special place on their body that only they can see.  Their little secret.  So when we say that "My ink tells a story." it does.

Those are the things that we wanted to highlight.  Those are the things that we wanted to promote and at some point we lost sight of that in the face of egos and food costs and promo and what they were going to get out of the deal and who gets credit.  We forgot that your ink tells a story.  We forgot that some people got tattoos because they lost a child or had cancer.  We forget the stories.

Getting a tattoo is a collaborative effort.  What story does your ink tell?  Let us know! We have talked about the artists, let's talk about the art.  No matter where you got your tattoo, if you want to tell the story of it, please write us at eqgreenville@gmail.com.  We will record the story that you want to tell to be aired on our podcast on Dec. 20. Let your ink tell its story.