Unfold(ing) in New Orleans
Saturday, June 6th, 2009ALLi: I want to get a tattoo again.
Last year, when we were all here in New Orleans, ALLi got a tattoo of the number 152. I went with her, hoping to get a bicycle wheel just below my neck. I brought some images, none that I loved, for artistic direction, and in the end, I skipped it. I decided the tattoo was too big in size, cost, time, obsessive pre-trip thought, and (as ALLi would remind me) I didn’t want to have a blow-up with my parents when they saw this new tattoo at a pool the next month, especially since I was considering chest surgery and wanted to save my energy for that blowup. Besides, I wanted something more like ALLi’s many tattoos, which are like small iconic stamps. But after scrapping the bicycle wheel, it felt too late to be whimsical.
eS: What are you going to get?
ALLi: I like words. I think I’m going to get the word unfold. That’s my favorite word.
Me (aka NiX): You have one. One favorite word? How can you have one favorite word?
ALLi: It’s my favorite. I think about it all the time. I say it a lot to myself. Unfold. eS, come here and write unfold.
eS writes unfold on a piece of scrap paper.
eS: I can do better.
ALLi: It’s perfect.
Me: One? Really? Out of all the words how do you have one favorite?
ALLi: You’re such a fucking writer.
Me: I’ve been wanting a writer tattoo. What about punctuation? I really hate exclamation points.
I pause, look down, look at ALLi.
Me: Maybe I should get an exclamation point.
ALLi: You’re kidding. What about parentheses?
Me: What if I got one on the back of each ankle?
ALLI: That’d be cute. Whatever is or isn’t between your legs would be be parenthetical. Ha ha.
NiX
ALLi
ALLi, eS, NiX
Photos by Mari
Names by ALLi