“Tattoo” by Ted Kooser, is interpreted in a multitude of ways. One-way to interpret this poem is the tattoo is used as imagery; to explain how elderly men are constantly trying to live the way they did when they were young. This point of view is identified in the poem, but it is not the main controversy being addressed. The controversy the speaker defines is how time changes a person. Another way to perceive this poem is that tattoos tell a personal story about the person. Many people excoriate others because they decided to get a tattoo. Tattoos could be important plus represent some significance to a person whereas others could just be a drunken mistake. The tattoo in this poem is seen as an emblem of manhood. Therefore, with age, the man’s …show more content…
machismo and tattoo have been diminished. In “Tattoo”, the speaker is cognizant of how people’s appearances change with age, but they remain the same person throughout their life.
Moreover, through the old man's tattoo, appearance, actions the speaker is able to illustrate the change in appearance but how the mans personality has not changed. The speaker manifests the old man’s appearance by describing the tattoo on the elderly man’s shoulder. The aged man’s tattoo was a symbol of his strength when he was young. Tattoos are typically on strong men, because the excruciating amount of pain hinders whimsical people from getting tattoos. The speaker uses a metaphor that states the tattoo appears as “just a bruise”(Kooser 4). Time has distorted the tattoo to nothing more than a bruise on his shoulder. This imagery proves that the both are old. The speaker chooses these words to make the reader compassionate towards the man. One cannot help but feel sorry for this man, he once had a bold tattoo that said a lot about him, but now it is nothing more than a black blog on his shoulder. These words at the beginning set a melancholy tone for the rest of the poem. The speaker realizes that the tattoo was “once meant to be a statement”(Kooser 1). The man’s tattoo was a symbol of his strength, masculinity, which may have summarized his personality. The tattoo was in a visible spot where everybody could applaud its beauty. This tattoo had meaning in addition
to beauty, but now one cannot distinguish it from a bruise. The tattoo is a heart with a dagger with dripping blood on it (Kooser 2-3). This tattoo is symbolic of some emotion being tested by some form of pain. The tattoo can also be seen as when someone loses a person close to him or her or one or both has been betrayed. Another interpretation of this tattoo is that the person with this kind of tattoo is willing to kill. The last, final interpretation of the tattoo is that the person breaks a lot of hearts. The tattoo is meant to depict all of these interpretations. When the old man was younger it meant he was willing to kill because he was in the military. He may have not have killed people, but he was willing to kill for his country. The old man was a player, the tattoo represents the women’s hearts he broke. When he got older he probably lost people close to him, then his tattoo took on a different meaning. With old age, it is his heart that is broken. Consequently, the tattoo could represents a loved one's loss, this man might be living alone because the loved ones may be dead. The man may also be alone because he is not present with anyone. Older people need company to do the simplest of task. The symbolic meaning of the tattoo leaves the reader guessing what the tattoo could mean. All the possibilities are not happy ones. The tattoo appearing as just a bruise suggests that the old man is no longer the man he used to be. The speaker leaves the reader thinking about the desolate life this man may have lived. The speaker uses assonance to enhance the sound of old in line four “old boney shoulder”(Kooser 4). This makes the line more dreary in addition to melancholy. The line also emphasizes that the man is no longer in physical shape. The author explains that this man was once “as strong as a stallion, fast and ornery”(Kooser 8). This man was once the acme of human physique, but now fighting against time. Time has taken a toll on this stallion because the speaker calls the man “just another old man” (Kooser 13). It seems this stallion’s life is very mundane also lethargic. The tone here depersonalizes the man plus categorizes him. The man is no longer an individual but part of the senior crowd. The old are forgotten in today’s society, this man is just another victim. The old man’s flaw is his vanity, the speaker attests this by explaining certain things the old man does try to appear young. The old man “rolls up his sleeves to show us who he was”(Kooser 12). He does this to show the swagger he had when he was younger. It is obvious the old man no longer obtains this swagger. People roll up their sleeves if they want to show off their muscles or they are going to do some strenuous physical activity. In this poem the aged man is not doing anything except picking up a few tools then putting them down. The old man is wearing a tight black shirt (Kooser 11); this is one way the old man tries to fit in with the younger crowd. This depicts a sad image, it may remind the reader of small children that try hard to be cool, but for some reason are never accepted by their peers. The tone of the poem is melancholy. No matter what, this old man does, he will be just another old man. The speaker also illustrates that the setting is at a yard sale, on a chilly morning. This leaves the reader in a sad state of mind. The old man has not shown any emotion at all, until this point. For some reason after the man puts the tools down, there is an indication that he feels pain. The old man puts the tools back because he is not able to do any physical activity. The tools are broken the man cannot use them. The tools may symbolize the man. In years past these tools could fix anything the tools were useable. Now they are broken, frail, besides irrelevant to the world. His heart goes soft after realizing he may be useless. This could mean he is in a fragile state of mind. He is sensitive because he feels that now in his old age, he is irrelevant to the world. The man feels without his youth, prior qualities he is as useful as broken tools. When the speaker says “his heart gone soft”(Kooser 15), this could mean that his heart is not well enough to perform certain task, such as repair. The leading cause of death in America is heart disease; he may have one of the many heart diseases that exist. “Blue with stories” (Kooser 15) is a weird term. Blue stories may mean a dirty joke of some sort. This means that maybe this man talks to younger girls in a degrading way. In the context, it most likely means that his story is blue, meaning that his story is a depressing one. In his life he has faced a lot of hardships. Even though the old man physically looks different, the speaker is able to see the man he was when he was younger. The speaker could not have known this man other wise he would not call him an old man, but by his name. Though he does not know this man he is able to tell the reader a lot about this man. The speaker uses this simile “he looks like / someone you had to reckon with” (Kooser 6-7). The old man must have some physical attributes or mannerisms that describes this type of man. It can be the man’s physical appearance because the speaker describes this man as “just another old man” (Kooser 13). The description goes on, because the speaker uses the metaphor “strong as stallion” (Kooser 8). Though this man does not have the physical physique (he once had) the person inside has not changed. The old man still rolls up his sleeve besides wearing tight clothing. These are things the man may have done when he had youth, but he continues to do them when he is old. This proves though his appearance has changed, he is still the same person. The speaker displays how the man changed over the years of his life. The opponent that conquers every human being is time. One cannot beat time. Time is a force that is constantly changing it is never the same. This old man is just another victim of time. Most people are vanquished by time; try not to fight against this unbeatable force. This old man is trying to prove time can not wither him. In this poem there are many signs that the old man is losing. One must admire this man’s effort, because most people would accept defeat. It would probably be easier for the man to accept defeat. Ultimately, the speaker is trying to express that one should not try to defy time because there is not a mortal creature that will ever conquer it.
Tattoo’s that are removable are not romantic, and it’s the wuss way to do it. I believe that the main idea of this article is how she got a tattoo that most people would regret because of how much she picked at it, but she didn’t regret it like most people would. In one of the paragraphs she says how even though her tattoo is blurry, scarred, and bad-looking, but she still has no regrets about it unlike 17% of the people in America who have tattoo’s.
While on the subway, the speaker is sitting on the opposite side of the car, facing the boy. The speaker utilizes imagery in this line, “He has the casual look of a mugger, alert under hooded lids. He is wearing red, like the inside of the body exposed. I am wearing dark for fur, the whole skin of an animal taken and used.” This imagery appeals to the audience by the sense of sight. The speaker is depicting the boy’s appearance as well as her own. She does this to contrast the differences between his raw appearance and her opulent appearance. She wants to elucidate that he looks treacherous while she looks like she could be the victim of a burglary. All of the imagery in the rest of the poem serves to describe the variations between the boy and herself.
There are a few great themes in Tattoos on the Heart, a novel by Gregory Boyle. Boyle is a Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries which is a gang-intervention program that helps gang members change their lives. The main message throughout this memoir would absolutely be compassion and solidarity. Boyles believes these two attributes are the key to breaking through the barriers that prevent gang members from leading reformed lives.
Life is not something simple as we often prefer. There are many different approaches and in most instances, we will not find the desired fulfillment in any of them. In the short story “Parkers Back” written by Flannery O’Connor, we have a multi-faceted view into the life of the primary character O.E. Parker. In addition, we see into the life of Sarah Ruth, Parker’s wife, and possibly into the life of author Flannery O’Connor, who died shortly after completing this short story. The characters in this story deal with tattoos from totally different perspectives and get completely different results.
The narrator is trapped by their past, and the poem describes it affecting their daily life. They have a black cat they are envious of, because the cat is carefree and does not make the same mistakes that the narrator does. “He refuses to be snared by a single love the way I did” (319). The narrator had gotten trapped by a love that went badly, and left them being broken from it. Their cat does not make this mistake, and is also carefree, “He leaps from the rooftop . . . doesn't dread crossing bridges or dark alleyways” (318). He just lives his life out and is not concerned about any sort of danger, and because of this the narrator is envious of the cat. They cannot act the same way as the cat does, they are too concerned about their life and what happens with it, “He doesn't cling to life as I do” (318). The narrator seems to be trapped by their past, and because of this, it affects the way they live now. They have shut themselves off purposefully, they let their past affect them this much, they corrupted themselves. They know this, and they wish they had not let it happen, this is why they envy their
Since the character is illiterate, he has no ability to determine his true feelings for the loved one. Additionally, this use of repetitive words in the poem also shows the lack of diction by the character. When words are repeated, it typically tells someone that they are either confused or have a weak vocabulary. Since it is implied that the man had a small lexicon because of his illiteracy, the poem reveals his ideas in a simplistic and repetitive wording
In the beginning of the article, Martin explains that teenagers usually pursue tattoos from an influence or even in an effort to confirm affiliation or identity (Martin, 1). He then compares the standpoints of the adolescents and parents. Adolescents tend to get tattoos or piercings for the look and feel of it, while parents feel that their child receiving a piercing or tattoo as a threat to their authority. Martin expresses how even the simplicity of piercing or tattooing skin can cause strain and arguments in families (Martin, 2). He then introduces his three main sections: Identity and the Adolescent’s Body, Incorporation and Ownership, and The Quest for Permanence. In his first section, Identity and the Adolescent’s Body, Martin explains some reasons as to why adolescents seek receiving something involving such permanence. He conveys how most teenagers seek piercing and tattooing as a refuge from an identity crisis or conflict, which are normal for youth development (Martin, 3). In Martin’s second section, Incorporation and Ownership, he explains how some adolescents receive tattoos after long thought processes; they embrace fantasy and imagination (Martin, 4). Last but not least, The Quest for Permanence. Martin explains how an anchor tattoo could mean something different for everyone. It is impossible to perceive a tattoo and know
Tattoo” can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. One way to interpret the poem is the tattoo is used as imagery to explain how old men are constantly trying to live the way they did when they were young. This is very ostensible in the poem, but this is not the main issue the speaker is addressing in the poem. The issue the speaker explains is how time changes a person. Another way to perceive this poem is that tattoos tell a personal story about the person. Many people excoriate others because they decided to get a tattoo. Some tattoos are important and represent something meaningful, while there are some that are drunken mistakes. The tattoo can be seen as an emblem of manhood. Machismo and the tattoo are diminished with age. In “Tattoo”,
When you read an article or piece of text, do you ever realize that there really is more to what the author is trying to say than what meets the eye? It’s like an onion. When picking apart an article, you have to peel back the layers of it one at a time, to understand the deeper meaning for why an author writes it the way they do. This is what I had to do, when analyzing ‘The Identity Crisis Under the Ink’ by Chris Weller, using rhetoric. When briefly skimming this article, one would gather that the importance of the article was that tattoos are more popular now than ever, and that the majority of people getting tattoos are millennials. When digging deeper into this article, the bigger meaning
"Tattoos “written by Buchness and Mary Ruth presents us with facts regarding tattoos, some being logical fallacies and opinions that has no proof to back it up. The article also portrays the usual stereotyping that people tend to express towards the topic tattoos in general. In the end, Buchness and Mary Ruth decides to use scare tactics without having any evidence to prove them to be true just like in the beginning of the article.
It isn 't uncommon to see people walking around with tattoos permanently stained on their body. It is also uncommon to know that they usually have a meaning. From Chinese symbols to images devoted to the flying spaghetti monster, people love to keep these tattoos to remind them of a message or a special someone. According to the World Book Advanced Dictionary, a tattoo is "to mark (the skin) with designs or patterns by pricking a line of holes and putting in colors. ' ' And the meaning of an individual 's tattoo can vary depending on where you are. In this essay, I will discuss contrasting elements in prison and in tribal tattoos. This will be done by doing a cross sectional study of their history, meaning and methods. Are prison and tribal tattoos similar or different?
Many people have been getting tattoos lately. People of all ages have been getting them and from all different backgrounds. On a nice day in just about any public place one can spot a tattoo about every five minutes, from the business man who had a portrait of his daughter put on him to a young girl with a butterfly on her ankle and even people with extensive tattoo coverage. What is even more interesting is the rise in the number of people who are heavily tattooed and that they come from all different backgrounds. Not too long ago tattooing did not experience the popularity in mainstream culture that it does now. The question that must be asked in order to understand this fascination that popular culture has had with tattoos is why people get tattoos.
One reading of this is that one you died it no longer matters what your race is or the races of others around you are as once you are dead you lack the capacity to care. The theme of race is continued with the line “Add amber earrings perhaps a hat or scarf of pink.” The items listed are often seen as racial stereotypes which help to create another link with the racial theme. The line “Black absorbs everything” can also be linked to race. When read as describing a persons skin black can be seen as absorbing everything as the persons race attracts the more attention than other aspects of their appearance or their personality and becomes the focal point. This point is strengthened in the two final lines of the poem “When black brings you those sudden inexplicable hostile glances.” This again reinforces the idea that black absorbs everything and that race can become the most important factor when looking at a person. Strong connections are again made with “Follow That Painting Back” as the negativity towards those who are black continues throughout the writing. Throughout the poem the colour black is presented in such a way as to be alluding to that it is about skin colour. it can however be read in many ways which leads to another theme
“The impact on the world today through the history and visual reasoning behind tattoos, lead to the inquiry of personal life changing experiences.
The speaker is someone who has endured much pain during his time. When reading the poem we can sense that the speaker was born in a time when