O's tattoo is multi-multi-referential, turns out. It borrows from another tattoo I posted back on July 12, 2009 (mouseover the image above for a comparison or hit the archives for the post). Both tattoos were inspired by the mockingbird poem I performed at the 2006 TED Conference and O's version even includes a curlicue quotation: It is the voice of life that calls us to come and learn. That line, which is in my poem, isn't mine--I'm quoting this talk by Clifford Stoll. Right at the 15:00 mark he tells a story about climbing the University at Buffalo clock tower as a student and finding the line there, inscribed on a bell. And I just now visited the Hayes Hall Tower Clock and Westminster Chime website where I discovered that Clifford misquotes slightly--the actual line is "I am the voice of life; I call you: Come and learn.
So O's homage is a tattoo inspired by a tattoo inspired by a poet quoting an astronomer paraphrasing...a bell.
[Quirky postscript: Veteran reader AW points out that I have my own bell tower inscription adventure in this YouTube video I made at a French artist colony in 2007. If you hit the link, the page favorites three other videos, including the TEDTalks trailer in which I perform a snippet of "Mockingbird" and which (coincidentally?) has as its placeholder image...a photo of Clifford Stoll.]
