Body and Soul

These are the tattoo-adorned calves of John Rogers. John's a musician and photographer who lives in New York City. He grew up in Nashville, and for a long time led a band here, the Transcendental Crayon Ensemble. The band was a fluid entity, with a shifting membership that included my husband, Dave. When John decided a few years ago to decamp to New York, he and Dave stayed in touch.

It's been a pretty tough transition for John. He didn't know anybody in New York, and didn't have any money. You can imagine. But John's a remarkable guy, and he has a profound devotion to music, which seems to be what sustains him. He's been working a day job at a bakery, and spending the rest of his time at the wealth of jazz performances in the city. He has taken some amazing pictures of musicians which you can see at his website.

The bright spot in John's New York sojourn has been meeting and spending time with jazz great Ornette Coleman. (If that name means nothing to you, learn about him here and here.) John's been able to talk with Coleman about his musical vision, and even hang out at rehearsals--a rare honor, and of course, heaven for any free jazz fan.

Which brings us back to the tattoos. The one on the top is John Coltrane, and was done a few years ago here in Nashville. JR has always had a devotion to Coltrane's music. That tattoo is a sort of ultimate fan gesture--Coltrane died before John was born, so there's no personal relationship there. The other tattoo is a different story, which I'll let John tell. This is an excerpt from his email to me:

"... i had been wanting another one but i hadnt had
that connection with any other musician that i had with coltrane.
then about a year and half ago i met ornette and started
hanging out with him about one night a week.
from hanging out with him i realized that any notion i had
of who he was and what he was about was far from the reality.
ornette sort of like became a symbol for me [of] going thru alot
of bs in nyc and coming out on top. he has shared with me
by letting me attend many reheasals some of the best
music i have ever seen in my life.
i will take these memories with me to the end,
so i wanted to get this as a tattoo.
david digby [who did the Coltrane tattoo] was very elusive he fell off the tattoo
scene and for two years lived off the land
in a cabin in east tn. finally he emerged and i was
able to track him down on myspace.
we set up a time and i flew up there [to Buffalo] to get this done.
he is the only person i know in the world
i would trust to do something like this..."

I have to admit, my first reaction when my husband told me about the new tattoo was that it was off-the-scale weird. A fan tattoo like the Coltrane is a little odd and extreme, but not that unusual. What seemed freaky about the new one was the fact that John knows Coleman. And Coleman knows about the tattoo, which made it seem freakier yet.

But the more I thought about the whole thing, the more it seemed both completely natural, and wonderfully subversive. Humans have always taken a lot of pleasure in adorning and reshaping their bodies. Like all our instincts and appetites, that impulse has often been corralled in ways that squelch individual expression. For example, people have decorated their feet with everything from mehndi to toe rings to beaded moccasins, but that more or less healthy fetish became a way to control women through the horrific practice of footbinding. The same thing happens in a much more insidious way when the modern cosmetics industry pushes a cookie cutter notion of beauty, and then tangles it up with issues of physical health and self-worth. Stepping off the pedestal of prettiness is regarded as evidence of pathology. Our ownership of our bodies is constantly being compromised in the service of social order and the drive for profits.

Seen in that light, the way John has declared his body a canvas to document his life is almost a revolutionary act. It's a slightly wacky, whimsical sort of revolution, but I think that's the best kind. Non-violent, joyful, driven by devotion to art--what better way to wage war against the powers that be? John's physical tribute to Coleman and his music is not an act of self-negation, though a lot of people might see it that way. On the contrary, it's his celebration of himself as a unique, loving consciousness.

Okay, enough bloviating. I think the tats are cool, and I'm glad John let me blog about 'em. The tattoo artist, David Digby, is offering his creations at Hero's Ink in Buffalo, NY, in case you feel like committing your own revolutionary act. Go to Youtube and listen to a little OC to put you in the mood.