Tom Cloud's Colorful Ink (The Tattooed Poets Project)

The first tattooed poet of the week for June is Tom Cloud, who is not your typical poet that we generally see here on Tattoosday. Tom can't be found in the pages of literary magazines, but that doesn't disqualify him as a poet. And his tattoos are bright, colorful, and heavy with meaning.

I'll let Tom do all the heavy lifting in this post:

"My name is Tom Cloud and my wife and I own a store in Mountain View, Arkansas called For Mother Earth.

I am 60 years old and write poetry purely for pleasure and for emotional release. I am not published outside of a couple of forgotten vanity press books and an odd website or two.

When my Doctor saw my tats she asked if I was some kind of ' Hindu Sailor'? The truth is that I love Eastern Indian art and mythology. While I do not believe in the Gods as such, each symbolizes an important concept and that is why they were chosen as my tattoos.

The Krsna tat is on my left forearm and represents the Call back to Eternity, and the Peace of the Spirit. On the right forearm is Ganapati... or Ganesha... who is Overcomer of Obstacles and brings wisdom and learning.

On the ankles are anklets made up of lotus flowers, two with the OM inside to represent Everything and two with nothing inside to represent the Silence. They are joined by chains in Sanskrit that read OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI, a call to Peace and a reminder for me to walk each step in Peace.

The White Rose is on my left thumb and is for Die Weisse Rose, for the young people who published under that name in resistance to the rise of the Nazi Party and it's precepts and wars as a commitment to speak my Truth about such things in my own times.

All tattoos were done by Dessa Blackthorn, who owns Tattooz By Sassy in Mt. Home, Arkansas."

I really love these tattoos on Tom. He also sent us this poem:

Tao Walker

The Mountain’s so lonely,
that I have to come down…
wandering my way from
the peak to the town.

Through a maze of trails
that are never the same,
finding lost pilgrims,
who are looking for names…

sometimes guiding the pilgrims
toward where they need go, or
telling others they seek for
things I don’t know.

I try to walk quietly-
to learn what I see…
so not to shock Nature from
Her Great Reverie…

Then comes the outskirts, the
sprawling of town…
the bustle picks up, and
the hustle goes down!

Kaleidoscopic, the busy-ness!
It’s always a shock
to enter a Reality of
numbers, of clocks…

they all speak my language
all talking to me, but
I am buffeted by Purposes,
dazed by the Meanings I see…

indeed, Human RACE!
God’s Sacred Zoo!
I absorb this Reality as
equally True.

Then, I reach overload, and
must slip away…
redeemed in the calmness as
I accept my own Way…

at home on the pathways
that wind toward a Peak…
joining lone pilgrims
for a time, as they seek

some golden Grail,
some symbol of Tao
encouraging their searching for
that lost Sacred Cow,

before reaching a cross-road
where I pass them by, to
go my pathless Way
to my home in the sky…

~ ~ ~

Thanks to Tom Cloud for his contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2015 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoos are reprinted with the poet's permission.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Erika Lutzner

Today's tattooed poet is Erika Lutzner, who sent us this photo:

Erika explains:

I have five tattoos which tell the history of my story; skin is my canvas. The tattoo that I want to share is of Ganesha. I chose to get the tattoo of Ganesha because he is the remover of obstacles, and I was at a point in my life where my path was far from clear. Ganesha watches over me and keeps me grounded and safe. I also have a tattoo of Hanuman carrying a mountain. He represents strength and knowledge. Anil Gupta did all my tattoos. He is an amazing artist. He works on the Lower East Side at his shop, Inkline Studio Inc.

Erika sent us this poem, as well, which was first published in failbetter, July, 2009.

Blackness Slips Through Sundays

A mirror cannot speak truth
Just as a woman’s face masks
a madness
The man in the mug shot
Could be anyone’s husband, friend, father, —
The woman hides behind
fiction

~ ~ ~

Erika Lutzner is the editor of Scapegoat Review. She curates Upstairs at Erika’s, a monthly writer's salon in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her work can be found in various places such as failbetter, Eclectica Magazine, and Tygerburing Literary Journal. Her first book, Invisible Girls, by dancing girl press as well as a second book, Some Things Are True That Never Happened (an anthology) are both out. She is working on various new projects. You can find Erika at http://upstairsaterikas.com/ as well as http://scapegoatreview.com/.

Thanks to Erika for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.