Every now and then I manage to talk a small press author into showing us a little skin... tattooed skin, that is. I know there are websites and books out there that have been-there-done-that already, but I hadn't seen one with a specific focus on the authors and publishers of the small press community. Whether it's the influence for their book, influenced by their book, or completely unrelated to the book, we get to hear the story behind their indie ink....
Indie Ink Runs Deep . . .
Max Caspar of Dark Factory [and
Kathe Koja]
Dark Factory is
Kathe Koja’s new immersive novel project from Meerkat Press, online https://darkfactory.club/ and coming this
year in print, ebook and audio. And the preorder swag package includes your own
Dark Factory tattoo! https://darkfactory.club/kathe-koja-presents-dark-factory/
Max Caspar is the club’s resident philosopher, though he’d
reject that title: But Max understands that the image of a thing sometimes is the thing itself, the same way a
tattoo can be so much more than just a body decoration. Here’s Max’s
interpretation of the Factory tattoos:
I knew Ari wanted to
get a tattoo when he asked about mine—it’s an image of Tezcatlipoca, the
roaring jaguar god who watches the world in his obsidian mirror, mine is, I
mean. Ari said that sounded like a gamer, looking at the universe through a
screen; I hadn’t conceptualized it that way before. Ari’s very good at that,
turning the mirror around so you see yourself. Other people might see other
things in my Tezcat tattoo.
Ari ended up getting a
triskelion, three black whorls of the same size, on his wrist. I told him that
that image occurs in a lot of different cultures, it represents creation
destruction and resurrection, body mind and spirit, and so on. I don’t know
what it means to him, except he and Felix—Felix is his partner—got one at the
same time, Felix’s is of a minotaur, Ari says. Ari says Felix has other ones
too, of flowers. Flowers have their own language, floriography.
Davide—he’s my work
partner, a gamer, a games maker—doesn’t have any tattoos, though it seems like
he should have plenty: Davide is hyper focused on symbols, and incorporating
strong visual meaning into actual, physical life. Our other work partner,
Clara, has a quote from Galileo on her arm: the English translation is, “It
still moves,” his apocryphal answer to the Inquisition. It’s the motto of
Clara’s business, Fantastic Fantoms, too.
Mila never had
tattoos—Mila, she’s a, a friend—and Marfa doesn’t either. Marfa lets her
t-shirts do the visual talking for her, all her shirts are neon bright and in
your face. Marfa is a journalist, she believes in words, not symbols; but words
are only symbols, too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bios:
Max Caspar: Max Caspar is a reality artist, concentrated on site-dependant, durational installations. He holds an MFA from Kunstfarm. He also writes. max@darkfactory.club
Kathe Koja: Kathe Koja writes novels and short fiction, and creates and produces immersive performances that cross and combine genres. Her work has won awards, and been optioned for film and performance. kathe@darkfactory.club
No comments:
Post a Comment