monoLOL
Why give a monologue when you can have a monoLOL?

@no_vem_ber Geeky but well-dressed media science graduate growing up to be a PArrrrrr Pirate. Ask me anything   

The Steady Unsteadiness of Human Life

Ever noticed, that whenever a conversation turns to tattoos, there is always at least one person to say: “I could never get a tattoo! That’s such a permanent thing, I can’t possibly be sure I’ll still like it in 10 or 20 years.”

While this is a perfectly reasonable objection, it always makes me wonder if the person feels the same way about other permanent things.

So when this argument came up once more at a party last weekend, I asked about the tattoo sceptic’s thoughts on marriage (admittedly I know that he and his girlfriend are planning to get married after graduation, I just wanted to make a point).

“But that’s a totally different thing!”, was his answer.

Is it? I think, it’s basically the same thing, only with much more uncertainty. Whether you’ll continue to like your tattoo depends on only one person, the one you probably know best. A marriage consists of two people, each of them an independent and evolving individual, so the odds that someone changes his or her mind are quite a bit higher (that’s one of the reasons I have tattoos but don’t think I’ll ever get married). To remove a tattoo is a costly and painful process, but so is a divorce.

Having kids is an even tougher decision. While a marriage ideally consists of two consenting adults, you can’t ask your unborn child’s opinion on the whole thing. You also don’t know how it will turn out, what kind of person you’re bonding with for the rest of you’re life. And you certainly can’t just stop being a parent if you change your mind.

There are of course many more examples, but I think you get my point.

Life’s tough, life’s unsteady. Still we make decisions. We make them in a certain state of mind, being a certain person and we hope it’ll work out even if our living environment, our loved ones and we ourselves change.

So if you don’t like tattoos, just say it. It’s a perfectly valid opinion. Just don’t try to rationalize your opinion in a totally irrational way.

P.S. I have two tattoos, cherry blossoms on my shoulder blade and the one in the picture is on my right wrist. It says “linger on” and is from Goethe’s Faust:

If to the moment I shall ever say:
“Ah, linger on, thou art so fair!”
Then may you fetters on me lay,
Then will I perish, then and there!

Both of them have a special meaning for me and I gave it a lot of thought, but you know, then I just did it and hoped for the best.

P.P.S. There are couples who are getting tattooed rings instead of actual wedding rings. Risky business, folks! But in the light of this blogpost it’s also kind of awesome.

Happy Easter!

Some pictures I took in Bonn during the Easter holidays :-)

The decorations at my boyfriend’s parents’ house are always quite excessive during holidays:

Could be matryoshka bunnies of some sort, but unfortunately you can’t stack them into each other:

A very congenial gift, considering that my master thesis is on zu Guttenberg’s plagiarism in his doctoral thesis and crowdsourcing:

I hope you are enjoying the days off!

My Guilty Pleasure - Scary Tales

I love reading Victorian horror tales and ghost stories. Some time ago, on a rainy day in San Francisco, I discovered the brilliant books written by Chris Priestley. 

Each book is a collection of short stories embedded in an overarching story line. The writing style is quite unique - it adopts the antiquated language of the Victorian age but sets aside the overlong descriptions of characters and places often found in Victorian tales. 

In addition, the books are beautifully illustrated by David Roberts.

So far, there are three collections of short stories (Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror, Tales of Terror from the Black Ship and Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth) as well as a novel (The Dead of Winter) and I’m impatiently waiting for the next one to be published.

So if you share my guilty pleasure here’s something for your reading stack ;-)

By the way: You can read a chapter from Tales of Terror from the Black Ship on the official Tales of Terror website: The Boy in the Boat.