One of my favorite projects of 2011 was a photo essay on my friend Jessica Clark for The Hundreds Magazine. For a short week, Jessica stayed with us here in Los Angeles and I shadowed her, documenting the Aussie’s every nuance and deliberation.
Our most profound time together was under the auspices of NORM at Will Rise Tattoo on Fairfax. Jessica chose to have “Conscious” drilled into her jawline, a proud badge of awareness and conscious living. As the needle broke her porcelain skin and permanently altered Jessica’s face, tears fell gingerly from her eyelashes. Visitors and onlookers left the room, the spirit wore heavy and opaque. I guess to see beauty …re-configured… is too much for some to swallow. Jessica didn’t seem to notice, her eyes locked on mine, but her mind floating endlessly elsewhere. The burden of the moment was jarringly interrupted by the machine’s annoyed drone. More tears. I asked her if it hurt. Was she crying of pain? ”No,” she barely replied, “I’m elated.”
And I believed her.
amazing.
(via withwornemptyhands)
