The Emily Narrative: ...just don't go corporate.

I know I've already told some of you this story, but it burns me up so much that I simply HAVE to tell it a little more, just to get it off my chest. I was at the gym, in the locker room, standing naked in front of my locker and putting on my running clothes. A woman was just getting ready to leave, and was taking her things out of the locker next to mine. She noticed the tattoo on my bicep and asked me what it said. When I answered (and demonstrated, by turning my arm), she said, "Hmmm. Wow. That's neat." Then turned the corner and left. A few seconds later, she reappeared from around the corner, so I thought she'd left something behind. Instead, she just looked at me and said, "Yeah. Just don't ever go corporate." And then she left again. I was stunned. I didn't know what to say, and even if I did... well, I was stunned.

What the hell did that mean????

DON'T EVER GO CORPORATE???

Bitch.

Okay, so I have a few tattoos. However, they're invisible when I'm fully clothed, and I'm guessing that people tend to be fully clothed int he corporate world, yes? There are people who see me almost every day, have even seen me regularly for years, and don't know I have a single tattoo. And what if anyone DID know that I have tatoos? They're not of naked women or skulls and crossbones or anything like that (mind you, I find neither of those at all objectionable, nor am I saying I'll never have tattoos of either)... the tatoo this woman saw says "philosophy" if you read it one way, and "art & science" if you read it the other. As for my others, they're all... well... interesting in a pretty academic way. And okay, I have a naked picture tattooed on me, but it's of DaVinci's Vetruvian Man. Seriously... never go corporate???

Actually, I don't suppose I ever will. Then again, I'm pretty close to it now, working in my big office building in midtown Manhattan, with my own office and my daily boardroom meetings and such. And my attire is regularly complemented by the people in my office, none of whom have ever seen a single one of my tattoos. Prompted by this incident, I asked John, who is covered in his share of skin art, if he had ever had anything like that happen to him. he said it happens now and then, and he wasn't sure why, either. He doesn't exactly look the part of what is actually does, for that matter, so people are often shocked to hear that the guy covered in tatoos is a PhD student in Classics holding down a full teaching load at a university. you know... despite the tattoos and the pony tail. So yeah, he gets the odd comment, and he doesn't really care. As for me, I still think the lady was a bitch. She wasn't making small talk... she was giving me life advice I wasn't even asking for. Hell, she came BACK into the locker room to tell me that. And for what? Don't go corporate OR ELSE? What the hell? Ugh... I hate people.

Okay... That's done. One a lighter note, here are some new pictures from my last race, the Al Gordon Snowflake 4-mile. See any tattoos?

(Bitch. Okay, okay, I'm done.)