Ramblings of a Tainted Mind

Corey and I waited in line with the other hard core tattoo/horror people, and when I got to Judy, she was already partially booked for the afternoon. She'd known I was coming, but she says that things happen to even the most dedicated people, so she'd taken a couple of smaller pieces. So, We had a bunch of time to kill before she could start. She said not to worry, that she would totally make it up to me, (which she did!). I showed her a couple of images I'd snagged from the net, and then left her to 'brew'. She's kind of like me that way, she needs to think about things for bit before actually doing them, especially on me. I think she likes me because I take the pain really well.

The first guy was getting a cool skeleton mermaid demon, but I didn't get a picture. The girl after him was getting wings on her back. I'm not sure that she knew what she was in for with Judy, lol. When I came by she was in teary-eyed pain, but she was hanging tough. I got a picture of her:




Now, wings on the back are a pretty popular thing, and I've seen some good ones. I don't know if you can tell in the pic, but these are really nice, and they weren't even done. I saw her later and each feather was detailed and lovely.

Anyway, back to me! So, she started sketching, but the facial expression was becoming a problem. She would try one, and I'd nitpick a little, and she'd do another. I want my Medusa to have personality, somewhat sexy, but also mischievious, which is a delicate thing to achieve. I joked with her that I thought one time she might send me to look and make her have crossed eyes and her tongue sticking out for being so picky!

Anyway, we settled on the final expression, here's the sketch:




I knew we wouldn't get it done, it was like twice as big as I'd thought it would be, but it's also 1000 times cooler. I love the snakes, each one seems to have it's own personality!

This is the first time I saw her in Nashville, I usually go to the Knoxville tattoo fest to see her. In Knoxville, they know me, because I was crazy enough to get the big side piece from Judy there. Here, people just stared and whispered after me, sure I was insane, and not make it through something so big. My personality type only makes me grip even tighter to doing something when people think I can't, so they helped me without even realizing it!



( the rest of the pics behind the cut! )

So, it turns out that my fascination with Medusa is merely a visual representation of my well-known case of penis envy. Or maybe that I want to remove penises and put them in my hair. Something like that.



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Medusa's Head (1922), by Sigmund Freud



We have not often attempted to interpret individual mythological themes, but an interpretation suggests itself easily in the case of the horrifying decapitated head of Medusa.

To decapitate = to castrate. The terror of Medusa is thus a terror of castration that is linked to the sight of something. Numerous analyses have made us familiar with the occasion for this: it occurs when a boy, who has hitherto been unwilling to believe the threat of castration, catches sight of the female genitals, probably those of an adult, surrounded by hair, and essentially those of his mother.

The hair upon Medusa's head is frequently represented in works of art in the form of snakes, and these once again are derived form the castration complex. It is a remarkable fact that, however frightening they may be in themselves, they nevertheless serve actually as a mitigation of the horror, for they replace the penis, the absence of which is the cause of the horror. This is a confirmation of the technical rule according to which a multiplication of penis symbols signifies castration.

This sight of Medusa's head makes the spectator stiff with terror, turns him to stone. Observe that we have here once again the same origin from the castration complex and the same transformation of affect! For becoming stiff means an erection. Thus in the original situation it offers consolation to the spectator: he is still in possession of a penis, and the stiffening reassures him of the fact.

This symbol of horror is worn upon her dress by the virgin goddess Athena. And rightly so, for thus she becomes a woman who is unapproachable and repels all sexual desire-- since she displays the terrifying genitals of the Mother. Since the Greeks were in the main strongly homosexual, it was inevitable that we should find among them a representation of woman as a being who frightens and repels because she is castrated.

If Medusa's head takes the place of a representation of the female genitals, or rather if it isolates their horrifying effects from the pleasure-giving ones, it may be recalled that displaying the genitals is familiar in other connections as an apotropaic act. What arouses horror in oneself will produce that same effect upon the enemy against whom one is seeking to defend oneself. We read in Rablais of how the Devil took to flight when the woman showed her vulva.

The erect male organ also has an apotropaic effect, but thanks to another mechanism. To display the penis (or any of its surrogates) is to say: "I am not afraid of you. I defy you. I have a penis." Here, then, is another way of intimidating the Evil Spirit.

In order seriously to substantiate this interpretation it would be necessary to investigate the origin of this isolated symbol of horror in Greek mythology as well as parallels to it in other mythologies.
Freud, S. (1963) Sexuality and the Psychology of Love. NY: Collier. (pp.212-213).

["Das Medusenhaupt." First published posthumously. Int. Z. Psychoanal. Imago, 25 (1940), 105; reprinted Ges. W., 17,47. The manuscript is dated May 14, 1922, and appears to be a sketch for a more extensive work. Translation , reprinted from Int. J. Psychoanal.,22 (1941), 69; by James Strachey.]

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Actually, some of this I get, and some of it is over the top to me. I can buy the Medusa being a representation of the vulva, especially since I know what the archaic images look like, and the story that the Greeks wrote about Medusa, who dared to anger Athena by schtupping Poseidon in her temple. Evil women will be punished, and all that.

But I don't agree with the castration thing. I do think the 'turning helplessly to stone' thing might have something to do with the natural fear of women that men have, and their oftentimes slavery to their penises. I'm not sure I buy the castration thing however, though surely the snakes may be phallic, I prefer to think that she wears them as a show of power.

and yes, I still want my Medusa tattoo.

Won't this make a spiffy icon?



The hafla got a late start, but we had a good crowd and lots of people shimmying their buns off!


lepidopteragirl, I hope you are feeling okay, we missed you!

We decided last minute to do some of our dances, but we were giggling and once the giggling starts I am a lost case. I think we made people laugh a little though, even though I forgot our choreography--again!

I had fun doing my medusa dance--so much so that I wonder if I can find an excuse to do it again sometime.

It's on crappy paper, and I need to redraw it a couple of times before I actually put it on my body, but you get the idea. I want her eyes to be like mirrors, I think. I tried cat eyes, snake eyes and human eyes, didn't like any of them.


It would be very cool to add a pegasus flying up behind her later on. Someday when I have more money I guess.