Branded

I admit, I got a tattoo in the early 90's. At the time it symbolized who I was -- young, carefree, unemployed. Now, several years later, I still enjoy my tattoo, but it is no longer a symbol of who I am. I can't help but notice the myriad of brandishings I see in the shopping malls, junior colleges and at the gym. Some of them make sense -- Tweety Bird, a skull and crossbones, some of them don't -- a heart with a name followed by another name and a name outside the heart. Getting a tattoo is a lot like eating an untried Asian food, it's exotic and a great topic of conversation, but it can haunt you. It can beckon you back to a time when you were daring to state, via your body, who exactly you are.

So I re-examined my tattoo, then I re-examined the mirror and saw new brandings -- balding, crows feet, faded tattoo and I wondered, are we always being branded even when we're not? Do we need something like a tattoo to tell the world who we are, or do our faces do it for us? How can we tell what others brand us?