I'm thinking about time, ancestral time, survivance, and touch. It reminds me of the tattoo I have on my right forearm, which is of the image I use as a Twitter banner. Here's the story of that tattoo:

I wanted to get a tattoo that reflected the history of Cherokee art, or Southeast Native art, and what I landed on was a pottery design that was used from centuries ago and is still used today. We have a lot of designs that relate to the sun, sun circles...

and this one is a series of sun circles that I asked my friend and tattoo artist, Christian Dietkus Lord, to do. It was cool because he is also a potter and we liked the idea of my forearm taking the place of the vessel.

In the Cherokee way this design would be carved into a piece of wood and then when the bowl was formed but still wet, they would imprint it onto the rim and then fire it. So, the process is able to be repeated...

but each vessel is different because of how the clay hardens or how the imprint is slightly altered in each case. This tattoo has twelve individual lines for each sun circle that Christian drew by hand. Line after line by hand.

I remember laying there and having a sort of spiritual experience. Being able to feel the shapes being imprinted onto my body, becoming part of that history. The process is as important as the image itself.

It is a way of hearkening back to tradition while also working in a way that is consistent with Cherokee artistic practices. At least that’s how I think of it.

I'm thinking of this because touch is so precious and so difficult right now. But these lines on my body remind me of ancestors and of touch and of all that had to happen for them and their ideas to survive.