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Patrick Kempees

Sonya Trusty

We finish each other's sandwiches not sentences by Jenn Small (IG—littlejennsmall). #ArrestedDevelopment #JennSmall #sandwich #traditional

Small dreamcatcher near the ditch #jaycrising #brightontattoo #UKtattooer

Illustration of Belle-Alley Fuentes

I've thought of having a tattoo in a similar style to this. However, rather than having the obvious graphic nature involving the bullet and everything, I was thinking of having words spraying out on like a watercolored stream. The words would be things like, "Anxiety. Depression. Fear." And maybe on her face there would be a semicolon under her eye. It would be considered a tattoo representing how often my brain travels into the dark and that there never seems to be a way out into the light without using force. #megandreamtattoo

Phantom Ink: Masqueraaaade! Disclaimer: If you have not read or seen the Phantom of the Opera in some form or fashion, then this post will probably be more confusing than interesting. Anyway, here's another blog about ink. Read on if you must. General Inspiration My latest tattoo was inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. In 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber blessed the world with his broadway musical version of the Gaston Leroux novel about the scary man with a mask - who happens to be a genius of music, engineering, and other stuff - running about the Opera Populaire, scaring and killing people as he coaches the soprano, Christine Daae. Yes, that was my run-on sentence summary of the story; too bad, that's all I've got at the moment. Anyway, a more interesting and historically significant note about the show, it became the longest-running Broadway show in 2006, with its 10,000th show on Broadway occurring in 2012 ("Andrew Lloyd Webber, n.d.). About the Lyrics: In the show, the song, "Masquerade," is performed at, yes, a masquerade ball. You can watch a version of it performed here: Masquerade on Stage. You can also check out the lyrics here: Masquerade Lyrics. The first few chorus lines, "Masquerade, paper faces on parade. Masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you" are also performed by the Phantom in his sorrow at the end of the performance when he decides to let his muse, love, and stalker victim (riiiight?) go free with her love interest, Raoul. You can see that scene here: Phantom of the Opera: Final Scene. Note: The Phantom sings the actual lines from "Masquerade" at about 11:00 minutes. However, feel free to watch the whole scene for added emotion. The Ink: "Masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you." I chose this line because I feel it really does remind me of me. All of my life, I have lived in the shadow of my own perfectionism. I wore an emotional mask to hide the depression and anger that lived within me. This mask helped me to cope with the outside world, a world that I felt compelled to constantly please with whatever skills or talents I possessed to feel accepted. Eventually, the mask did me no good, and I fell off of the cliff of demise built by my own desire to be everything and anything to everyone else, losing myself in the process. Now, the mask is more frequently off, and I am able to deal with the ones I choose to wear, the world must deal with the real monster that is ME. :) This line from "Masquerade" illustrates how I see myself in life. I used to see wearing a mask as a bad thing, but in a sense, we all adapt ourselves to a certain degree depending on the situation we're in at the moment. By getting inked with these lyrics, I do not intend to perpetuate the notion of hiding behind my own masks, but serves as a reminder that in the end, it's all about being who you are, whether you're wearing an emotional/social mask or not. Each one of us has a collection of these masks: we all throw on the employee mask, the significant other mask, the friend mask, the parent mask, the teacher mask from time to time. For me, it's a matter of knowing what mask I'm wearing at the time and what the consequences (good and bad) are for doing so. The be-yourself mask is best, in my opinion, but easier said than done, for many. #letteringtattoo #lyrics #phantomoftheoperatattoo #phantomoftheopera #songlyrics #masquerade #lettering #script #calligraphy