"that's going to age poorly" is a common refrain that's projected by people - who themselves are probably aging poorly - in the comments of any videos or photos of tattoos. or "you'll regret that" and (my favorite) "what does your mother think of those". my tattoos are pretty innocent, i only have a handful of them, and they're all on my shoulders and above the elbow so they're often not even visible. i love them and i'll get more.
yesterday i was going through photos from november 2014, just to see what i was up to 10 years ago, and it brought to my attention that the day after thanksgiving was the 10-year anniversary of my first tattoo, which we call cattoo. this has become a tradition, where the day or so after thanksgiving, my friends and i would go get tattoos together. it was a tradition that, like a few others of mine, went on indefinite hiatus when covid hit.
anyway, if you wanted to see what a 10-year-old cattoo on the back of my arm looks like compared to the day it was created, here you go:
my inspiration for the tattoo was m.c. escher's dodecahedron drawings and my black cat jefrey (rip). i'm gatekeeping the artist because i am afraid this post will enter some weird space that may bring negative attention to both of us because some of you are fucking weird. from my perspective, the only one that matters here, they did a great job at taking my vision and turning into beautiful art i literally carry with me everywhere. i even went back to them the next year to get another dodecahedron on my other arm.
tattoos, like any circumstance (except death, perhaps), is only permanent if you allow them to be. i've heard it's painful and expensive to remove them, but it's a common and more and more available option. i only say this so that those of you grown adults who want a tattoo but get told "it's going to age poorly" consider that aging itself is a blessing and privilege not everyone gets. i'm over a decade older than the age my mom passed away - i imagine she'd love my tattoos, by the way. so why avoid adorning the surface level of your skin because you're afraid of what it will look like in 10, 20, 30 years? do your research, stay safe and clean, and live laugh love out of the comment section.
xoxo jenn
i mentioned having drama with my air compressor in my last post. the issue was that the compressor's drain cock valve - the pee-hole, on this blog - was leaking air. notice how i said 'the issue was' and that's because i fixed it. to celebrate, as well as deliver on my promise to jenn nation, here's...
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if you ever read anything about airbrushing on a technical level, you'll be told that it requires immense patience. there is nothing more truer in this world! it can be quite unforgiving and needs a lot of setup and cleanup, but the results are really beautiful and it's such a versatile tool. one of the things testing my patience with airbrush right now is that my compressor is leaking air from the drain valve. instead of shutting a window onto my neck about it, i figured to step away from the tank and show you my humble library of airbrush books. i've been collecting them for education, inspiration, and to feed my innate urge to buy used hardcover books that cover my somewhat niche and outdated hobbies.
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after the election loss last week, i've spent a lot of time on my screens watching people spiral, activate, argue, plan, fight, grieve, celebrate, move on…all the things. it’s very human yet overwhelming and i don’t want to contribute more to it, but idid need to get some of the thoughts swirling in my head down to make room for what’s next. i am going to tell a very personal story, but it dominates my mind whenever i feel the world is ending so the perspective may be helpful to those who feel alone in their grief right now.
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the verge's allison johnson recently asked 'where did our 2004 photos go?'' and i know exactly where mine are: they're on my computer. i'll share some that i think best show the essence of what my life was like in 2004.
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november the first be with you, my friends. i have done a lot these past few weeks, and naturally i have started to feel crushed by the five unfinished drafts of blog posts i've been writing on paper, screen and in my mind. because i caught myself feeling bad for not publishing anything, here i am 31 minutes before a zoom call sharing with you some of my bathroom art.
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a month ago i left a job i held for several years, a job that took me through a winding road of launching a product, going through an acquisition, lots of high points and lows...but ultimately i got to end the journey on my own terms, on my own time. i couldn't have asked for anything more, especially given the state of the world. i'm so very proud of my work at glitch and fastly, and it's special how i got to be one of just a handful of people who can say they have grown and lead millions of developers in creating the web and community! it was a lot of fucking work, though, and i need a break.
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releasing an editable document on the web for anyone to edit in any way is terrifying but exciting. that's in part why i worked on glitch for so long - letting millions of developers run arbitrary code, more often than not for free, allows incredible viral moments to happen that shine brighter than any of the bad stuff (spam, phishing). this facilitation of web building always comes with its moments of noticing someone is doing something you didn't intend and you immediately thinking 'oh, that's it, we're fucked' but more often than not the next moment you're tearing up because the web can be so beautiful.
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the last several weeks have been a lot, between plotting and executing a major life change and co-hosting xoxo. i have so much to say about those things, also past events like devrelcon that i've gone to...there's been a lot. i just need to finish my last week at work and process the past month and then i'm confident i'll never shut up on here.
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in my last blog post i talked about the kissy lips mac osx icon and how reactions of my use of it shaped the direction i took a lot of my art going forward - essentially, if i choose to express myself in a way and people tell me it's not professional simply because of misogyny, i'm going to double down. it was in september of 2014 when ben sisto, artist and expert on the song who let the dogs out, reached out to me about an art residency program he was running at the ace hotel, 24 x 36 - where 36 artists spent a night at the ace hotel in nyc over the course of 24 days.
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