One would think that after spending the better part of two years in the English department, writing nearly every day, it would b difficult to forget the process. Less the process and more how I get during the process actually. Somehow that's what I managed to do though. I'd forgotten how I live inside my papers and let them absolutely consume me. I'd forgotten why sometimes, just before a project was due, I'd be up pacing the floors, unable to focus on or talk about anything except the project I was consumed by. I remember now.
None of the writing assignments for any of my other classes compare to this one. None of them have as much of my attention as this one. I have found myself living inside this project to the point that tattoos are now being discussed with nearly everyone I run into. I was at the library with a friend last week, working on a project for a different class and within 10 minutes of being there I found myself debating this paper with him. He mentioned that he is "anti-tattoo" and that was all it took. I immediately launched into an interrogation about why he felt that way. Of course, knowing I'm inked, he backpedalled and said he's not really "anti-tattoo" just that he's never had the desire to be inked himself. We followed that up with a discussion of who gets hired first the tattooed or the non-tattooed person. Like many non-tattooed people he easily articulated that if the hiring is left to him and all education is equal, the non-tattooed person gets the job. Also like many non-tattooed people, he could not articulate the logic behind that answer beyond "they just do."
"They just do" isn't a good enough reason when someone with tattoos has to explain to their family why they lost out on a job opportunity. It's not good enough when this is the difference between food this week or no; between Christmas or no. As long as the images depicted in the tattoos are not offensive (eg, anti- anything or gang affiliated) and the person passes all the normal background screenings that a non-tattooed person would be subject to, why shouldn't they get the job? How is that not discrimination and where do we draw the line? Or isn't there one? Is this the equivalent of the pretty girl with flawless makeup getting the job over the one who is exhausted and it shows? What about the guy who is clearly gay but no one will ask? Go back 60 years to when the no one wanted to hire the black guy, or another 20 or 30 years before that when no one wanted to hire the woman. Where is the line?
There are so many interviews in some of my sources where people with tattoos talk about encounters they've had with other people. Not all of them are shocking, but one that stuck with me is from a young guy who didn't disclose to his employer the fact that he has a full back piece. One of his coworkers caught a glimpse of it by accident in a public gym and then began dropping comments in front of their boss that eluded to the idea that this man was inked. Despite his efforts to always wear dark shirts to that the piece is covered, the young man describes feeling trapped and blackmailed and as if he is stuck groveling to this other guy who is actually in an inferior position that his so that he won't expose his art.
Seriously? In 21st century America we have well-qualified business professionals playing elementary tattle tale games with other people's careers over a tattoo that isn't even visible? It's not as though this guy walks around the office shirtless.
I saw another piece on the Internet a day or so ago where a woman was stating that her Miami construction company required her to wear long sleeves to cover her tattoos in the summer to go out and mingle with the construction workers on site, many of whom were also tattooed. This girl is sporting sunflower tattoos and she's being forced to cover them in Miami in the summer on a construction site. That hardly seems fair or practical. I wonder if she were to succumb to heat exhaustion or heat stroke, and if she tried to sue the company for making her dress inappropriately, who would win? Their tattoo policy or her health?
As it stands I don't have a very defined thesis statement, but I'm writing my way toward one I think. I'm definitely managing to narrow my scope down to how having a tattoo, especially a visible tattoo effects a woman. So far I've knocked out 6 of my 10-12 page requirement and I haven't used half of my sources yet so I know the other 4-6 will be no problem. If anything I may end up needing to scale back. I also managed to finally write the last citation for my annotated bibliography. I've had the source forever and I've had it read and summarized, I just hadn't gotten to add it to the file. Now it's there too.
If I know anything about me as a writer, and I'd like to think by now I do, it's that the hardest part of this paper is going to be the thesis statement and tweaking the intro. Those have always been my weaknesses. Oh, and focusing long enough to write, of course.
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