I've yet to post a picture of my sparrows I got over the Christmas holidays. They are lovely, and keep me up with their colorful wings. As many of you know, I really love bright, colorful, old school tattoos.
Michael is a bit simpler than I, and enjoys more abstract art. We both love the idea of barcodes for tattoos, because they symbolize humans commodity identity. So, Michael knew he wanted a barcode on his neck.
He just emailed me: "I'm thinking of changing the meaning of the barcode." (We found a website that translates words into real, working barcodes. Before, he thought he liked the word "expire", because like any shelved good, humans have a limited shelf life. Also, there's a double meaning, as ultimate consumerism equals death of the soul).
Anyway, he continued, "Do you like 'obey' or 'deviate'?"
Think about that paradox. As humans living in a society that values labels and things over uniqueness and simplicity, we mostly strive to 'obey'. Even by blogging, we are attempting to emmerse ourselves in a technological society and gain readership from others. We 'obey' by partaking in society. The 'deviants' are diseased, or mentally ill, or criminals. To deviate is the ultimate faux pas of our modern world.
But who wants to be a cookie cutter of anyone or anything else?
Forget it. I'm a deviant. I'm a mutant, and want to be that way. I need to stop watching the damn television and start shocking people with new ways of looking at the world. I need to remember what makes me special and different from every other chick out there.
What about you: will you obey or deviate?
The art of Shiori Matsumoto
