ok reading further into visual snow and CEVs it’s so strange to me. like I legitimately thought everyone had this ‘screensaver’ in their brain if you close your eyes and this was the baseline human condition 24/7. turns out not everybody sees like..a vague kaleidoscope of shadows and occasional rippling colour changes when they close their eyes even when 10000% sober? i’m learning so much lol
this is one of the closer simulation gifs i found, mine’s less vivid usually, maybe like 30% of this opacity
seems many people are able to experience these at some point in their lives, especially on a hallucinagenic substance. but for others it is a constant experience to some extent. I don’t want to pathologize something that’s technically a “normal” experience but yeah I believe I fall into the latter category
not too much has been written or studied it’s a very new topic so we really have no clue what percentage of the population considers this normal. and it’s very easy to trigger by rubbing your eyes. so yeah most people have these and it’s harmless on its own, just seems to depend how jumpy your neurons are
A while back I drew this, if anyone wants to see a rough approximation of what it looks like when rubbing my eyes :-)
turns out that book on japanese tattooing history is a real page turner. it’s a big book and i blasted thru a good third of it in a couple hours, reading aloud (hyperfixation powers activate). i’m learning so much but also confirming a lot of my anxieties about why i might not be able to design my own irezumi for my silly fan purposes bc, to paraphrase the way the book eloquently puts it, irezumi (or the art of traditional japanese tattoo design) is a visual language that has its own grammar and syntax, and you have to take time (sometimes decades) to properly learn it before you can properly create new metaphorical words, sentences, and stories using the complex lexicon of established symbols. making mistakes, whether by unintentional blunder or by uninformed decision, can change the whole meaning of a tattoo, and could be disastrous
that said, i’m not creating a tattoo to go on a real person. the stakes are far lower. but i do want to be careful and respectful while playing with something that’s not from my culture
in addition to helping me dream up new irezumi, this book is also turning out to be helpful in unraveling the irezumi donned by yakuza characters. most are given just one big back tattoo with one (1) thing on it (which is perfectly common and normal, it just means something a lot simpler bc, to use the language metaphor, it’s simply a word instead of a sentence. kiryu and his dragon, and saejima and his tiger, are simple, but powerful)
but majima, with his complex mix of several different visual elements, creates a very interesting tableau of meanings. let me try and break it down as briefly as possible with what i’ve picked up over the course of this book.
right. so. what are we looking at here? well, we see the hannya of course, plus the twin snakes and sakura, enveloped in swirling waves and clouds. the tattoo is rendered in three ink colors in varying saturation: black, red, and yellow, with hints of green for the sakura leaves. black and red are very traditional, even ancient tattoo pigments, and yellow relatively more modern. green is so modern, some artists consider it disqualifying as irezumi, bc it’s nontraditional. we also can see that the tattoo spans over his back, thighs, shoulders, chest, and arms. this is what’s known as a kame no kou (literally “tortoise shell”, referring to the back and thighs) and hikae (from hikaeru, or “to restrain oneself”, referring to the shoulders, chest, and arms). if the tattoo spread a little lower on the arm, past the elbow, the whole bodysuit would traditionally be referred to as simply shichibusode, but no, majima had to combine two different things, like a bisexual
it’s been said in other posts that having a tattoo this large and elaborate is staggeringly expensive and time-consuming, which reflects directly on both the wealth of his patriarch who’s basically sponsoring him (and gets to keep the “canvas” of his skin in the event of his death), and also majima’s endurance with pain. two of many reasons why yakuza get tattooed in the first place, but there are still many more
every visual element to this tattoo has a meaning individually, and woven together, creates even more meaning. i’ll try my best to elaborate on as much as i can, from my limited knowledge
now let’s put it all together! one theme i’ve noticed here is of vitality/tenacity, a unique balance of masculine and feminine, mystery (the mythicality of the shirohebi and hannya, plus the hypnotic swirls of water), and fierceness (sharp teeth and horns, blood red sakura). from the hannya mask alone, we can certainly pick up connotations of theatricality, fearsome rage, renown and reputation, potential wisdom, and complexity. the shirohebi also give me a vibe of like, “i’m a rare breed”. plus good luck of course. having TWO of them also makes me think of how he has two distinct “sides”. the mad dog persona and goro majima, the person. did i catch everything? did i read too much into something? let me know
anyway, i’ve still got about a third of the book left. i’ll add more to this if i learn more relevant info on the topic
I keep seeing posts that are like:
Person #1: *Meme about breaking news*
Person #2: I can’t keep learning the news like this.
Person #3: If you’re going to a circus, expect to see clowns.
But the thing is, sure, everyone on tumblr expects to see clowns.
What we don’t expect is for the clowns to do this:
And this has been the exact energy of this website for months.
