The Tattooed Poets Project: Claire Askew's Two Naomis

<span>Today's tattoos come from Claire Askew, a poet and editor who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland:<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqmO0uImxiGVJytlRFD7_FugD9-mOVSb1PIMIpQz-GrOVIEokHfneNVM9DjydhBYeTyB6XXFWO9C-X8ea1vkM06TCAnEE8l208GMPYH5opZ7Wl4ifZzPE2kHVUIX4etLW_xcJX207_iFQ/s1600-h/claire1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328955528498448722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqmO0uImxiGVJytlRFD7_FugD9-mOVSb1PIMIpQz-GrOVIEokHfneNVM9DjydhBYeTyB6XXFWO9C-X8ea1vkM06TCAnEE8l208GMPYH5opZ7Wl4ifZzPE2kHVUIX4etLW_xcJX207_iFQ/s400/claire1.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><br /><span>Claire explains:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><span>My tattoo was inked by Roberto Seifert, who works out of <a href="http://www.herzblut-tattoo.de/">Herzblut Tattoo</a> in Leipzig, Germany. However, he tattooed me while doing a guest-stint at the fantastic <a href="http://tattoozoo.net/portfolio.html">Tattoo Zoo</a> (run by Gerry Kramer) in Victoria, Canada. It was summer 2008 and I originally went into the parlour with my boyfriend, who was getting his second piece of Tattoo </span><span>Zoo ink. Seeing the place and talking with the artists, I decided I also wanted t</span><span>o be tattooed there, and took the plunge -- this was my first tattoo.</span><br /><br /><span>The design is based on part of a painting by <a href="http://www.alanaldridge.net/">Alan Aldridge</a><wbr>, most famous for his Beatles sleeve art and illustrations. I like the sleeping faces because they're innocent, but because they're inside flowers there's also something slightly sinister about them, like Venus Fly Traps. Roberto worked on them a fair bit before inking them, and the two are ever so slightly different from one another -- one looks very pure and sweet<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_DOKQfhJlr_qJBG_zzvN008JeZ3NHofc-w_s9-dtGsKBQIvDE-S36n75w1b5X0DoZDQ0azf7M53974ROWhJuZd_PuwgQSOQ0HmyQRP0Z64CbcRBqK-pis4Lh66xf7MI_s3ItSBT41bE/s1600-h/claire+right.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328956359591902306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_DOKQfhJlr_qJBG_zzvN008JeZ3NHofc-w_s9-dtGsKBQIvDE-S36n75w1b5X0DoZDQ0azf7M53974ROWhJuZd_PuwgQSOQ0HmyQRP0Z64CbcRBqK-pis4Lh66xf7MI_s3ItSBT41bE/s320/claire+right.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" /></a><span><br />while the other looks more menacing, like she's plotting something.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvFbUdYEC5npfqs11l3jogFNj5X5uMJqgoWOuDWoOzygGVHww9g0SFypugI0xg9qqWk11KV9_lTdtqPXLUCCb3JuKWJlsPgrz3FhSuAK3_7LLbkWFtKzpJs4s_kFJeT2SfVWf6hYleE7U/s1600-h/claire+left.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328956154019543730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvFbUdYEC5npfqs11l3jogFNj5X5uMJqgoWOuDWoOzygGVHww9g0SFypugI0xg9qqWk11KV9_lTdtqPXLUCCb3JuKWJlsPgrz3FhSuAK3_7LLbkWFtKzpJs4s_kFJeT2SfVWf6hYleE7U/s320/claire+left.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" /></a><span> I have a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde character so this really seems to fit.<br /></span><br />I am planning to expand this into a full chest piece in time, although currently I am enjoying their delicacy and sparseness. I've nicknamed them the Naomis -- when I had them done, I had just finished an academic dissertation on the poet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg">Allen Ginsberg</a>, and had become fascinated by his mother Naomi, an amazing woman, but a sufferer of paranoid schizophrenia. Perhaps fittingly, they got her name.<br /></blockquote>Thanks to Claire for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday.<br /><br />Please head over to BillyBlog to read one of her poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-26-claire.html">here</a>.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Claire Askew's Two Naomis

Today's tattoos come from Claire Askew, a poet and editor who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland: Claire explains: My tattoo was inked by Robe...

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