You Know This Is All Meaningless, Right?
I Want To Talk About The Meaning Behind My Tattoo
Have you ever looked at a person with tattoos and thought “I should ask about those tattoos, but I bet they’re tired of talking about them?”
You’re wrong. That person has a tattoo instead of a personality. They’re desperate for you to ask about the meanings behind their tattoos. Even the dumb ones. Especially the dumb ones.
So let’s talk about mine! I’ve had this one for 2 years, now!
Actually, A Digression
I’ve been railing against Myers Briggs and astrology for decades. Pointless leadership quizzes was the subject of the second-ever Cube Drone comic in 2010.
(I promise, I got marginally better at drawing over time.)
I hate Myers Briggs.
My friends, they do not understand.
“That’s obviously one of many artificial lenses through which to understand reality, nothing more than a fun parlor game that’s obviously something that you can apply when it’s useful and otherwise discard at a whim. Plus, it takes people who aren’t naturally introspective and helps them enjoy a brief moment of introspection in an otherwise utterly unexamined life, what’s the (sidenote: “curtis, your friends sound smarter than you,” don’t worry, i know) ?”
I shout at them “because some people DON’T understand that and actually take it really seriously”, and they tell me “maybe you’d be happier if you didn’t exhaust so much mental energy being mad at imaginary idiots” and then I get thrown out of the Wendy’s for standing on a table.
Dude, Relax
Well that makes this seem pretty hypocritical, doesn’t it?
At its core, this tattoo represents - well, not what I am, but a reminder of what I’d like to be -
- I should be a little bit less (sidenote: every time I say that I’m “conservative” I have to specify in a footnote that I mean emotionally, not politically, so that people don’t think I’m One Of Those, you know) and take a few more chances.
- Confident, striding into the future, unbothered, not riddled with anxiety.
- Ignoring you and playing Balatro right now.
And one of the things I’d like to be is… accepting. Hell, able to accept that every taxonomy-based non-scientific way of processing the universe, from tarot cards to jungian archetypes to astrological symbols to blood types - no matter how nonsensical, can still exist as a fun game of introspection and self-knowledge.
It’s fun to think about and talk about what makes you different from other people.
Like with pro wrestling, stage magic, Santa Claus, the flat earth or the holy trinity - if you can’t enjoy something because you’re troubled by the mere existence of people who might be gullible enough to believe it’s real, maybe you’re the problem here.
That’s why everybody hates that kid who figures out Santa isn’t real and starts trying to ruin it for all of the other kids and smugly shame them for not figuring it out. Yeah, WE KNOW, you’re a real smart kid, now let us preserve some of the magic for the slower kids in the back, maybe the universe can still be special just for them. It’s not like unfiltered reality is a nice or kind place for anyone.
And when I complain about people taking corporate values seriously, or go on and on about how taxonimizing everything is a habit of the insane I’m being that kid.
“Corporate Values aren’t real!”, I shout from the rooftops. “We know! Shut up!”, everyone shouts back.
My Other Tattoo
This one just means “I fuckin’ love making software,” rendered in my favorite coding font at the time (Inconsolata). With the way things are going now, I’m worried it’s going to turn out to be the equivalent to getting a “Blockbuster” tattoo in the year 1998.
I didn’t even think when I was getting my “The Fool” tattoo that “The Fool” and “The World” are the two ends of the Major Arcana, it was just a happy coincidence after the fact, although it might tie me to some other oblique Tarot references in future tattoos.
The Hero’s Journey Isn’t Real
So I’m queueing up videos to watch while I work on a day off (because I’m a masochist) and I get to watch this poor auteur crash out over people taking The Hero’s Journey way too seriously:
anyways it’s George Lucas’s fault.