Archive for the ‘tattoos’ Category

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The illustrated woman

October 15, 2010

All new residents come to see me in their first week, and yesterday I met Viva. Since Viva has her GED she won’t have to attend my class. But we talked awhile and I was struck by how many tattoos she has, often a sign of long-term incarceration. If you’re never getting out then it doesn’t matter how the “outside” world sees you. What’s unusual about Viva is that the tattoos are all over her face. Her eyebrows look like the stylized waves one might see in a Japanese ink drawing. Tattooed words that I can’t make out form a proper mustache and goatee. Women’s names are written in red and green on her cheeks. She told me she has started the long process of having the tattoos removed by laser. “I put them on to fit in, I put them on to keep people away,” she said of the tattoos. “It’s complicated.” Yet her friendliness and social ease belie all self-consciousness.

What does any of us put on to fit in, to keep people away? It’s an interesting question.

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Drunk on anger

July 29, 2010

It isn’t often that I write about the dark side of my students though they tumble into my school with long unspoken histories. Most of them have been arrested more than fifteen times and that’s only counting when they got caught. When students get kicked out of the residential rehab it is often for drug use but sometimes it’s because they’ve become angry, even violent. Christopher left yesterday. I ran into him on my way in to work and he said he was leaving to go to another program. “I pushed someone,” he said. Christopher has a mohawk and small curled goat horns tattooed above his hairline on each side of his head. I heard he pushed an older guy on the stairs during a scuffle.

Christopher would come in to my school drunk on anger. If he got frustrated with a math problem he would storm out rather than ask for help. I worked with him to practice multiplication on paper. He was making slow progress in his arithmetic, but had no patience for the learning process. Standing beside his packed bags, Christopher expressed sadness in not being able to finish his math studies. I didn’t buy it but I tried to be supportive.

Posted in math, parolees, rehab, tattoos, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

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Handcuffs to cufflinks

July 7, 2010

Every day I go to work I feel blessed because I love my job. I don’t keep my job —  it keeps me happy. Finding work is hard enough with an advanced degree and a decent resume, imagine trying to pound the pavement looking for a job with over fifteen felonies,  visible tattoos, and no employment history. It’s no wonder my students end up in telemarketing or, worse, back taking rather than making money. So it’s always a good thing to see a student get a job.

One of the oddest jobs my students have ever done is count cars. A few of them were hired to sit on certain corners and observe automobile traffic. They loved it. Others are such skilled tattoo artists they are snapped up by tattoo shop owners as soon as they are free. We’ve also had semi-pro athletes at the rehab who fell from grace; no going back there. Many of my students have made more money in an hour dealing drugs than they could make at a tax-paying job in a month. The majority have never held a real job for more than six months. When I see one of my students get all dressed up and go out for a job interview, it gives me a surge of pride. They’ve gone from handcuffs to cufflinks.

Posted in adult education, employment, parolees, rehab, tattoos | Leave a Comment »

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Universal Product Code

June 7, 2010

Neck tattoos are the billboards of skin art — they advertise who you are.  In the mid-nineties I was a substitute teacher in juvenile hall. When I couldn’t remember a student’s name I’d walk up and down the rows of desks and sneak a peek at that student’s neck. More often than not their names would be inscribed on the back of their necks.  Maybe it was important to not be mistaken in a gang altercation?  What interests me most is what someone chooses for you to see that is not visible to themselves. Yvonne has a small tattoo of a woman’s handbag inked on her neck. I asked her if it had something to do with purse snatching. “No, Ms. P, it means I like money. I don’t take purses,” she reminded me with her typical candor. “I’m an international thief.”

Sequoia is a new student who grew up in a small town in Oregon. He isn’t actually enrolled but comes to my school to help out, tutor other students in math. He has a UPC barcode tattooed on the back of his neck. I asked him if he ever tried to scan himself at Target. Sequoia says the numbers in his UPC tattoo have special meaning but prefers to keep that to himself. I showed him our online encyclopedia and every time I glance over he is looking up some esoteric subject like cosmology or pantheism. Sequoia looks like he stepped out of a J.Crew ad until you notice the limp in his walk and the barcode on his neck.

Posted in adult education, gangs, parolees, tattoos | Leave a Comment »

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Three dots (flashback)

April 15, 2010

Frankie came in today after his first tattoo removal treatment. He is having his La Vida Loca dots, three dots in a triangle configuration, removed from below his left eye; the small 69 from below his lower lip; and his mother’s name, Rosa Maria — this being the most important of the three — removed from his neck. He thought his mother would be happy when he got her name inked on his neck. I think he said she fainted instead. She is very happy Frankie is having this done now, and to get it done for free for doing community service is especially cool. Otherwise it would have cost him $5,000. Frankie is a tattoo artist himself. He does permanent eyeliner on people, he wants to study cosmetology. He has a real chance of succeeding.

– from a 2002 journal entry

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Why 23?

March 5, 2010

Aryan brothers, I could live without them in my classroom. The first time I saw the number 23 tattooed on a guy I asked him, why 23?  He told me W is the 23rd letter of the alphabet, W for white power. I’ll never forget the time I saw a guy sitting outside my classroom with no less than five swastikas tattooed on his face and shaved head. I wondered to myself, “I hope he hasn’t been referred to my school.” He was just too extreme  and frankly a bit scary.  I’ve been trained not to talk about my religious affiliation so when a ‘brother’ asks me if I’m Jewish, I have to practice an almost ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy but sometimes I will say, ” yes, I’m Jewish.”  I don’t sport a ’10’ on my forearm, you won’t find Moses holding the tablets on my back.  I’ve had skin allergies my whole life and worry I would be allergic to the ink and then there is the history of so many Jews who were forcibly given tattoos during the Shoah. A student of mine once returned from being back in prison with a cross on his forearm. I saw the words, ‘God Bless’ and said, “you found religion?!” Upon further inspection I saw the words surrounding the cross said, “God Bless the Haters.”

Posted in gangs, parolees, prison, tattoos | 1 Comment »