Last week I had the pleasure of meeting a distinguished young philosopher (and distinguished blogger!). During conversation, he mentioned that there were surprisingly few professional philosophers from his home state, and that the only one he knew also had in common with him the fact of having tattoos. According to him, this was surprising, given that there are hardly any tattooed philosophers. Now, this seemed to me like an unwarranted statement; for all we know, there are lots of tattooed philosophers around, but we just don’t know about their tattoos, hidden under layers of clothing. I challenged him: would you count me as a tattooed philosopher?
As a matter of fact, I do have two tattoos on my lower back, and there are plans for more ink work to come. I know at least one highly conspicuously tattooed philosopher -- I guess he does not make a point of keeping it a secret: Bryce Huebner – who also has some philosophical tattoos among the many he has. I am a big admirer of Bryce’s tattoos (for the record, I’ve only seen those that are visible in social settings!). Last week’s conversation got me thinking, and some googling took me to the Tattooed Philosopher’s Blog, which I just started reading, but which from the looks of it sounds very interesting. Tattooed Philosopher (a woman) contemplates “the philosophical significance of ‘everything ink’”. I do have the feeling that there are many interesting layers of philosophical significance to tattoos, but I haven’t had the chance to think hard enough about them yet.
Then, last weekend I saw Almodovar’s latest film, La Piel que habito (The skin I live in), which, as the title says, has the human skin as its main theme. (Btw, not the best Almodovar movie ever, but an Almodovar is always an Almodovar, if you ask me…) Generally, I submit that the skin, this utterly amazing organ, does not receive the attention it deserves from philosophers, who tend to obsess about the brain, and occasionally spend some time thinking about the eye.
So, with all this background in place, I now propose to launch a new philosophical society: The Society for Tattooed Philosophers (STP). It accepts as members those with a philosophical training who have tattoos, with possible exceptions to be made for those who plan on getting tattoos. The goal of STP will be to foster philosophical reflection on ‘everything ink’, and to create a venue for debate among like-minded tattooed philosophers. Given my meager track record tattoo-wise, I don’t think I deserve to have any prominent position in the Society, so (self-)nominations are welcome! To be sure, while I am fully aware that for many people tattooing is a serious life-style, the goals of the Society would be rather on the light-hearted side of things: just get together (in the virtual world) and brag about the beautiful art on our skins. Anyone interested in joining?
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