Play//Pain

Last Sunday  Carlos Whittaker posted a simple question on his blog, Ragamuffinsoul.com.

Do you sport the ink and what tats do you have?

Very good question.  Tattoos since their beginning have been at their core just a means of storytelling. (this is why I hate reasons like, “I was drunk”, “I dunno” or “I thought I was in love with her” (although one of the funniest tattoo stories I’ve ever hear starts out that way, just ask Josh Reibock about his turtle tattoo). That said, I realized I haven’t talked about any on mine on here. So today I wanted to explain my latest tattoo that I got in February of ’09, my Jerry Sailor-esque Swallow bearing the banner that reads “Play” on one side and opposite, “Pain” above which…wait, there’s a photo right there.

I wanted a traditional tattoo art-form

Play/Pain is a concept derived from Andy Crouch’s book, “Culture Building” (I heard him speak in ’09). In it, he tackles the struggle of the utility of Christian Art, or Art in general. What is the societal purpose or functionality of art…? Art seems to be the exception within society, in that it can “only” be perceived as intrinsically valuable, (only valuable in of itself) useless, helping no one really.
In society doctors heal illness, engineers build bridges, and grocery-sackers prepare our food for transportation, but where is purpose or utility of artists, if art is only intrinsically valuable? Is it just a bunch of grown-ups playing instruments, or scribbling paintings?
So after a long set-up on my part, the point that Crouch makes is that art is NOT only intrinsic but serves two major functions within the culture, the first being PLAY, and while it’s not very grown up, it transitions people into joy.

It’s the wallpaper on our walls, it’s the carefully worded phrase, when a stupid one would have done, it’s architecture, design, and ergonomics. Then there’s PAIN, Monet’s Lillies take a whole different meaning when you understand the pain …that laid behind them. It allows people to enter into their pain in order to face it, and deal with each’s own demons. It’s The Moonlight Sonata, Phan Thị Kim Phúc, or Schindler’s List. (*Then there’s the asterisks of, you can’t have one with out the other, or Play becomes tantalizing. Pain, macabre.)

If you want to read more from Andy himself, you can visit his blog.

So I got the tattoo as a reminder to myself about the cultural shaping that I can have as an artist. (which Crouch goes into at lengths, but his book will do a better job than I). How God is a culture-maker, how he commissioned Adam, and all mankind to be culture-makers, and what an amazing role the church can have in that discussion!