Ian Tan
Student Writer
In this column, the topic of discussion usually circulates around how expressive tattoos are as images, thus giving us an additional voice to the usual words we speak. However, as I interviewed Nate Gorkos, a junior English major, I realized how comics have also contributed to this dialogue and commentary element, and that this has inspired his tattoo as well as others’.
Can you describe your tattoo and what gave you the idea to get it?
My tattoo combines a picture from one of my favorite childhood comic strips, Calvin & Hobbes, with a quote from one of my favorite movies, Fight Club. It pays tribute to a highly detailed fan theory that The Narrator and Tyler Durden are really just the grown-up versions of Calvin and Hobbes, respectively.
As someone who enjoys the Calvin and Hobbes comics, what are your thoughts on the communicative power of images?
Images can often provide a level of ambiguity words cannot, and they provide a multitude of possible interpretations.
When did you come to realize the power images have to communicate?
I first realized the power of images as a child when I read Where the Wild Things Are and was able to get lost in the forest cahooting with Max and the monsters.
Are there any other comic strips that you might get a tattoo of?
While not a comic strip per se, something from Junji Ito’s Uzumaki will certainly make its way onto my skin at some point in the near future.
Why might you choose Uzumaki for your tattoo inspiration?
Ito’s work is strikingly visionary and imaginative, and as a huge fan of everything horror, his work has given me enough nightmares to warrant it inspiring enough to become another tattoo.