rise above: the Henry rollins tattoo

once upon a time I had cable in my room.
once upon a time my girlfriend (yeah CIS female) introduced me to Henry Rollins...now MTV circa 1997 was an interesting time. Around that time I was beginning to accept my sexuality.
now I was a queer punker by that point..blossoming punker really.
so by that point I developed a crush on Travis barker. But one faithful evening veronica got giddy when the "Liar" music video came on.
so veronica is sitting there grinning...and I'm sitting there trying not to get giddy myself.
so I'm sitting at book soup 10/27/11 as Henry Rollins is talking about his book of photos /essay "occupants."
"I try to fight the man a little every day.."
he's perfect...mainly because of his passion for social change.
many a times at occupy LA I crushed on guys like him....now just to be clear this wasn't just some school girl crush. Ask anyone who their favorite black flag frontman is and you'll hear any of a number of answers (Keith Morris is mu fav). Now...black flag was a part of the early LA punk scene.  I already had a blue germs circle tattoo and wanted to get the black flag bars inked...i just didn't know how to not have them be the standard design. See in terms of iconic punk logos the bars are up there with the crimson ghost skull (still haven't gotten that one yet). So one day it hit me...celluloid strips!
see I discovered my love of punk and cinema roughly at the same time so it made sense.
Henry Rollins was the first time I broke the rules I had established for myself on signatures. Obviously not a filmmaker but still influential to punk and for a bit also film. When we talked briefly I mentioned his IFC show.
most of the filmmakers that had signed my arm were on his show.

vindication when he stated he "was checking out my tattoo and liked it." met him at a later date..."thanks for your contribution to punk but above all thanks for your support of the lgbtq community" it was one of those sincere moments where he put his pen down and talked to me honest and sincerely.
"I don't see how someone can't. I wish most of these politicians would just be more honest and say they're just homophobes."
swoon