Beneath the circuits, the tree of life
I am in the process of getting a new tattoo. The image is a “bio-mech” tattoo in which the skin is ripping open to reveal a circuit board beneath it. The skin is tearing because the tree of life, which is growing behind the circuit board, is bursting through. I think it’s an especially splendid idea.
The design reflects a nearly life-long fascination with the dualism of nature vs. technology. I’m not sure when this particular fascination began. Probably with Star Trek and nurtured through old sci fi like Andre Norton, Robert Heinlein, Ursula LeGuin. Of course, when I started learning about feminism, I discovered the gendering of this dualism (along with the gendering of the nature/culture divide, hard/soft sci fi, and pretty much everything else). All of this culminated with me turning into a Donna Haraway fan girl with a little bit of the Matrix thrown in for good measure.
This is not a tree
I remember pointedly a moment during my late teens when the juxtaposition of nature and technology crystallized for me. Sitting outside one of those new glass office buildings in downtown Houston, I studied the reflection of a tree in the windows. Today, with the benefit of twenty years of critical reading, I could mine this image for a host of observations. In that precise second in the past, however, there was nothing for me beyond simple recognition. I acknowledged the juxtaposition with all the naive anguish of meaning that epitomizes late adolescence. It’s the same sentiment, I think, that the character Ricky Fitts describes in the iconic plastic bag scene from American Beauty – in which nature and technology dance as a plastic bag gets tossed around by the wind:
Now I could expand on these thoughts extensively but I’ll spare you. Besides, I’m sure you can predict where I’ll go. Instead, I’m returning to my tattoo, which I find infinitely more exciting right now.
Bio-mech tattoo
I’ve been contemplating a new tattoo for many years now, but nothing ever called to me for the design. About two or so months ago, I decided it was time and so I actively hunted for images. I’m not sure how the one I settled on came into existence. I’ve always loved the cover of Simians, Cyborgs, and Women but that wouldn’t make for a good tattoo. I considered Matrix code but I didn’t think that would work well either. I ruminated on a dream catcher with a circuit board and various computer parts, but rejected the idea because it’s cliche and cultural theft of Native American culture. With the image of circuit boards in my head, I started hunting through tattoo artists’ portfolios and discovered several appealing bio-mech tattoos. I really loved the ripped skin (*shiver*) exposing the robot inside the body, but the terminator style robotics did not appeal to me.
Circuit board tattoo
Then I found a circuit board with a plasma ball bursting out. That appealed to me except that the tattoo wasn’t framed by anything. It was just ..well..there. I put two and two together and got the skin ripping around a circuit board. I also pondered the plasma ball, which did not interest me. So I settled on something from nature bursting out such as a flower, or butterfly, or bird. Cliche, yes, but at least it would provide contrasting color and explain the skin ripping.
With that vague image, I went to Art Addiction and talked to the artist, Kristin Mayeaux. As you know, I purposely seek to support women professionals for every service I need. Kristin’s cool. I explained what I wanted and while I was telling her, *pow*, the idea of a tree popped into my head. And thus the tree of life was born beneath my skin and behind my circuit board.
I can now reverse engineer the symbolism of this image (isn’t that how story-telling always works?). It was destined because of the reflected tree that I’ve always carried in my mind. It speaks to my fascination with nature and technology, which attracted me to Haraway’s work. So my tattoo is very cyborg, true. There’s also this whole idea of the tree successfully bursting through the circuit board, which suggests that nature is poised to win the eternal struggle. Still, the battle is not yet won. The tree of life has many meanings across religions, mythologies, and ways of thinking. I can’t begin to recount its symbolic significance. And lord knows what data traverses the branching circuits beneath our skins. My therapist’s preferred reading is to wonder what part of my nature or my insides is trying to break through; she left the technology part unspoken but it was clearly the rest of her question. In the end, the image is open enough to interpret in multiple ways, which makes it a great tattoo.
My tattoo - outline
