One More Tattoo on a Poet! Natasha Dennerstein's Awesome Octopus

National Poetry Month may be over, but I couldn't close the chapter on this year's Tattooed Poets Project without sharing this breathtaking tattoo from one of our "alumni," Natasha Dennerstein:

Natasha first appeared on Tattoosday back in 2012 here.

Natasha was our first New Zealand poet, but she has relocated to Oakland, California and recently got this phenomenal piece from Jeramie Hamilton (@thethickwillstick) at Scholar Tattoo (@scholartattoo_sf) in San Francisco. She notes that "the tentacles come right around as if to attempt to wrap around my neck."

She shared the following poem, which she feels is a good companion to this tattoo. The poem, "Clifftop," is from her collection Anatomize from Norfolk Press. She collaborated often with an Australian-born, L.A. artist named Kaye Freeman (@kfreeman1701) and Natasha included a painting Kaye did on piano-roll paper in conjunction with this poem. "This was part of a joint series we did called Skeleton Dreaming," she told us.

In case you can't read from the image, here is the poem again, by itself:

Clifftop

On a Wild Turkey night under an Ativan moon I stagger around

the cliffs to lift my dark spirits.  One too many times you arrive

with the slime  of  her on you and  expect  me to lick it away.  I

slip or fall or plunge  into the bitch-slap, ice-cube sea where the

fish   nibble   my   flesh and  gropers  take sustenance from  my

innards til all that's left is bones, a  home  for  hermit-crabs  the

dome of my skull.  Plankton  colonize  my  ribcage.  My weary

bones  roll on rocks: I've found  my  salty  home  on the seabed

floor, where currents pass through me  and   gently  carress me.

My   heart   is  devoured by  bottom-feeding  creatures  of   the

deep. A lobster eats my pancreas; a crab consumes my pituitary

gland. They  may  end up on your table as you have a penchant

for seafood.   Take me, sea,  I'm  yours; eat  me, lover,  I'm fish-

food.

~ ~ ~

You can read more about Natasha Dennerstein here.

Thank to Natasha for sharing her wonderful poem and tattoo with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is �2017 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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