Sometimes I wonder why it is I like drawing characters with tattoos. I'm not a flamboyant person; I'm not one to stand out in a crowd or even to crave outward attention by passing strangers. Even when I'm sketching out in the open and a curious person comes over to my table to look at my work, I find myself growing increasing shy and inwardly quiet.
One thing is for sure is that drawing tattoos, especially multiple tattoos on a character, is a good design choice, because it draws the eye into specific tiny details and immediately identifies the character. I think it is the one thing I fear in getting a tattoo inked on my own body...that gnawing fear of being sidled with a single, specific symbol of my being for the rest of my life. No one exact symbol could define me because I'm constantly reading and living and absorbing different concepts that shape me. It would mean that I would have to accommodate a new symbol each time my world view shifted, and that would mean inking major portions of my flesh.
Still, I envy those that can commit to a specific identifiable symbol that empowers them or allows others to become attracted to their inner natures. There is that instantaneous hook that draws people closer, makes them curious enough to go up to someone with an interesting tattoo and begin conversing on the style, the content, the tattoo artist who inked them. And while I get a vicarious kick at looking at a nicely designed tattoo, I like that there is a story behind the art, that there exists a personal mythology, an enigma that can only be shared through a deeper intimacy.
A friend once told me that he buys a pack of cigarettes to keep inside his shirt even though he doesn't smoke. He gives them out to people when he knows they're hurting for a nicotine fix and that, for twenty cents or so, he makes an instantaneous friend or it becomes an introduction to start a conversation. I think tattoos do that, but in a more profound way. It is an immediate conversation starter, and "in" to closer contact, a gateway into a alternative mindset.
I like my characters to have tattoos and smirk and smoke and drink and do all the varied things that I decline to do, not because I'm not adventurous (okay, I may be), but outwardly I like to showcase my inward thoughts that are always changing and shifting, to the extent that my characters are swirling in a chaotic spiral on the page. When I analyze this, it scares me that the haphazard manner I draw is a reaction to needing that new stimulus, that new energy all the time. Either that, or I'm as neurotic as hell and I need to be psychoanalized.
I don't know whether choosing one set image or images would ever satisfy me. So, I start a new page with new faces on new characters brandishing their new tattoos in a vicarious existence that gives me peace of mind.
At least my invented friends on the page are changeable and malleable, too.
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