"Try telling the boy who’s just had his girlfriend’s namecut into his arm that there’s slippage..."

“Try telling the boy who’s just had his girlfriend’s name

cut into his arm that there’s slippage between the signifier

and the signified. Or better yet explain to the girl

who watched in the mirror as the tattoo artist stitched

the word for her father’s name (on earth as in heaven)

across her back that words aren’t made of flesh and blood,

that they don’t bite the skin. Language is the animal

we’ve trained to pick up the scent of meaning. It’s why

when the boy hears his father yelling at the door

he sends the dog that he’s kept hungry, that he’s kicked,

then loved, to attack the man, to show him that every word

has a consequence, that language, when used right, hurts.”

- Todd Davis, “Tattoo" (via the-unfeminine-female)