The Tattooed Poets Project: Joy Leftow

Today's tattooed poet is Joy Leftow, who offers up this tattoo on her upper right arm (and part of her shoulder):

Joy explains the story behind this tattoo:

The tattoo is my alter ego - not only Eminem has one. I had a very tumultuous and crazy childhood, so that I ended up dropping out of high school is no surprise. What is a surprise is that I now have 2 masters degrees, 1 in social work from Columbia, where I also attended undergrad for free in a special program geared towards helping the educationally and financially disadvantaged....out of the 11 people I began the program with, only me and one other gal made it through to graduation. Thus the importance of books in the tattoo, which represent knowledge and learning. I was always an avid reader and this turned to be my saving grace. But Columbia is a bitch and very competitive and wasn't exactly easy for a high school dropout. My other masters is in creative writing and is from CCNY, because once you're a working person, nothing is free, and CCNY is affordable. I'm very sorry to see the days of opportunities for the disadvantaged pass by and now one must work hard to find any remaining ones.

Myke Maldonado from Dreamland Creations [in Stroudsburg, PA] is my inker. Myke is famous for torturing people so that your ink will last forever. He also has some fame as a comic book illustrator and for his erotic art comics. I chose him because my son is totally inked by Myke. I know that Myke sits and takes his time to make the creation a by product of dialogue and collaboration. If he wouldn't have moved his ass around the country so much, he'd be a lot more famous. You can't find a better or more responsive inker. Love Myke!

Joy offers us this poem:

Ramblings Of A Dead Poet Revived

I’m your dream that drama queen you wanna be because you’re too damn scared on your own

so you talk about me –

My life shot and framed at every angle, a show and tell story of gory glory

A fit of reality TV evening drama

Me, an item to be discussed while you pine away

dismay pitted against your boring display of ridicule and scorn

a fine young thing wasted by the sideline of fate

a doorstep away

from where I stand

another miserable life invites me in

inciting an indictment in flight with a slight itch on the right side

another spiteful blight, pitiful, truly a fight to recite in the red light district of my mind

be polite do a rewrite be an anchor of light at first sight, sit tight

stay upright, only a bit contrite that my

knight in shining armor is all in my head

I have a legal right so join me in breaking bread maybe

Tempt you to try a

glass of organic Oregon Chardonnay instead

my life can’t be that exciting that you spend your time wondering when I do what I do and how I do it why do you care about my theatre life on the big screen

my life’s a Sartre amphitheatre

play and I am the spectre at the center of the fuss

I reminisce I exist

the bliss a swiss-chocolate kiss amiss to a soul kiss

the calypso discussion

I disinvite you to an airtight conclusion

~  ~ ~

In addition, we have an additional vision of Joy performing one of her poems:

Joy Leftow is a double alumna from Columbia U with a second Master’s from CCNY in creative writing. Her blog has over 27000 facebook followers and can be relished at: http://joyleftowsblog.blogspot.com. She’s been featured on Rockland Internet Radio, Indie Feed, Jazz Poetry Café and Everything Goes. Leftow’s honesty and openness may astonish you or embarrass you, but she promises not to bore you. Her book, A Spot of Bleach, is available at Amazon.

Thanks to Joy for sharing her tattoo and her words with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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