The Tattooed Poets Project: Debbie Kirk

I always like to finish up the Tattooed Poets Project on a strong note, so today's tattooed poet, the last of this year's series, is the heavily-tattooed poet Debbie Kirk.




It also happens to be Debbie's birthday today, as we check out one of her tattoos. More specifically, let's look at the top of her left arm:






This piece, complete with straight razor, brass knuckles and cherry bomb, bears a banner that proclaims "Bow to your elders, you Emo Fucks."

I mean, what more can I say about that?

In discussing which tattoo of Debbie's to use, this exchange took place:

Tattoosday: "I hesitate to use the emo one because of the language and because I'm sure people will not understand why you would get it, but that makes me want to use it more".

Debbie: "its a favorite with peeps...it has been declared the sexiest tattoo ever..."

Tattoosday: "I love tattoos but they are generally so benign nowadays, so it's nice to see one with a true fuck-all attitude."

Debbie: "Yeah, that defines me what you said right there....and why I got the tattoo. I think that single tattoo is the most ME. I can be a bit honest...which is why people like my poetry."

Where'd she get the tattoo? Debbie recalls " I just remember I got it in Venice 5 years ago from a girl who proposed to me when I told her my idea...I still tell that story. I KNEW it was good with that reaction and she was hot."
 
Debbie gave us several poems to choose from, and the one we selected, she says, is very representative of her work:



Little Frankenstein girl
 
Little Frankenstein girl
has the hands of a pianist
And the heart of a broken organ
With thorns, glass
Bats and Indian ink
Seeping thro…
Sewn together
Crookedly stitched
Like a pastel valentine heart
Filled with mismatched parts


Little Frankenstein girl
Has the right brain of a killer
Her right hand is dominant
While her left foot always faces away
Wanting to disconnect
To run
To be free


To not be part of this
Fucked up experiment
Dreamt up by
A genius dressed in rags
And chased by demons
The kind that really scratch and bite
When you are fast asleep


Little Frankenstein girl
Is not a little girl anymore
The curls in her hair
Dreaded up in the sun
Medusa in the wind


Her loud strong voice
Muffled under the stitches
That firmly binds her lips together
Bondage bringing pleasure
Only to those who wish
To keep her silent
(and they are many)


The little Frankenstein girl
Can’t count the stitches on her wrists
From all of those nights
With her right hand doing
What her left foot
Wanted to walk away from
And her not understanding
That she was never really alive
In the first place


Little Frankenstein girl
All mixed up
And
Mix matched
Returning every evening
With fresh wounds to be sewn
From another vain attempt
To be mortal for just a few seconds
Before the fall


Little Frankenstein girl
Stolen parts
Come with stolen lies
Maggots and flies.
The gravedigger, looking to make a buck
Steals her a kiss
The moistness quenches her lips
He promises more kisses tomorrow
She scurries home
Knowing full well
She’s damned to a life of stolen kisses
And malfunctioning hearts
that spit in the moonlight.


~ ~ ~
Debbie Kirk has published 6 chapbooks and been in 12 anthologies and hundreds of print and online zines. She lives in Santa Cruz with her dog Dr. Gonzo.  She has a website she rarely updates at tntkirk.com but she can be best located lurking around Facebook!  Also check out http://tntkirk.com/.


Thanks to Debbie for sharing her tattoo and poetry with us here as we close out the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday. Also, we wish her a very happy birthday today!


This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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.

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Three's Not a Crowd

I met a trio of friends hanging out in Penn Station in early October, waiting for their train back to Rhode Island.

I spotted Darius first, which was understandable, as he has seventeen tattoos. Kenny and Katie, his friends, each boasted a modest three tattoos apiece, and offered up theirs as well.

Let's start with Darius, who has this traditional Mom and Sparrow tattoo on his forearm:





He said that he and two other friends got the same tattoo.

This was done by Jae Audette at Mcinnis Tattoo Company  in Providence, Rhode Island. Work from the shop appeared previously on the site here.

The other tattoo, on his bicep, is this set of brass knuckles that says "Knuckle Up":





This was done by Forrest Curl at Altered Images Tattoo Studio in Cumberland, Rhode Island.

Also from Altered Images is this still-in-progress rib piece on Kenny:





This is a depiction of The Crimson King from Stephen King's Dark Tower Series. As you would imagine, Kenny is a huge fan.

Rob Young is the artist who is working on this piece.

Katie then generously offered to show me her tattoo, which runs down her spine:




When I asked if she wouldn't mind sending me another photo, since the tattoo was partially obscured by her bra strap, she didn't hesitate to unhook it so I could photograph the whole tattoo, unobscured:





Katie explained that her heritage is Armenian, and that the letters down her spine spell the word for "family".

She added that two of her cousins have the same tattoo, but inked on their arms.

She also noted that the infinity symbol at the base of her neck speaks to the Armenian text and symbolizes, for her, "family forever".

She did not recall the name of the shop where she had this done, but recalled it was on Long Island, New York, and that the artist was "Joey D".

Thanks to Darius, Kenny and Katie for sharing their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

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