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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Style / Chicagoland / Music Is That Mark E. Smith on Your Trapezius?

Posted by Cliff Doerksen on 08.25.10 at 07:50 AM

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I'm not going to mention any names, but there's this dude at the Y where I more or less work out with a very pronounced tattoo of Fall frontman Mark E. Smith on his right . . . trapezius, I think? Probably it's a trapezius. Refer to the picture and decide for yourself. The context here is Berwyn, you understand, so I'm trying to figure out whether this is a "There goes the neighborhood" deal or a "Hey, the hipsters are arriving at last" deal. (It's wearing, having to depend so heavily on fucking FitzGerald's for cred, lemme tell you.)

Anyway, first time I saw this lusus naturae, I had to do a double-take (subsequent to a spit take, actually) just to make sure it wasn't a botched Frankenstein or something. But nope: it was unambiguously Mark E. Smith from out of the Fall.

I bided my time and watched the guy for a while before I said something to him about it. Because, you know, he's obviously a pretty heavy fan of the Fall, and they can be a bit . . . uh, sectarian in my experience. But finally I said, "Hey, that's a huge tattoo of Mark E. Smith out of the Fall on your arm." And then I was so glad I did, because I didn't make his day, I made his year. It turned out that mine was the first positive ID of his tattoo ever. Guy's been walking around with Mark E. Smith on his arm for ten years, and nobody recognized it once.

Upshot: Come on, people now, smile on your brother: Reach out to those around you with Mark E. Smith tattoos.

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Deltoid.

-- MrJM

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Posted by MrJM on 08/25/2010 at 8:20 AM

Ahem. Left arm all together. Unless his head's on backwards, all Exorcist-style.

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Posted by Grendix on 08/26/2010 at 10:04 AM

You might be a hipster if you've ever financed a Mark E. Smith tattoo.

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Posted by FGFM on 08/26/2010 at 1:27 PM

Has M.E.S. looked that old for ten years?
Yeah, probably so.

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Posted by DFairbanks on 08/26/2010 at 7:41 PM

Since I am the owner of the above tattoo, i think it's important to correct or reiterate a few corrections: 1) it's the anterior deltoid, 2) it's the left arm and i haven't used my exorcist/head-spinning talents for some time now, 3) the tattoo is around 10 weeks old, not 10 years and it was illustrated by the talented Patrick Cornolo, and 4) I don't really fit the hipster profile for several reasons, one of which is because I'm probably older and less hip than Mr. Doerksen, whom I really do appreciate even if what little free time I have is now occupied responding to people about these trivial issues. But if MES brings some credibility to the otherwise barren Berwyn-Cicero area, then so be it. And my Brix tattoo is private!

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Posted by Alan H on 08/26/2010 at 8:33 PM

Oh, and the neighborhood's already gone.

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Posted by Alan H on 08/26/2010 at 11:29 PM

I can't be a hipster: I live in Berwyn. And Christ, have you seen the way I dress?

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Posted by Cliff Doerksen on 08/28/2010 at 6:08 PM

Being called a hipster is the new racist, no one wants to claim it even when they know it's true haha, whatever, I've never enjoyed the Fall and that's an ugly tattoo. And I'm not a hipster, I live in Portland!

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Posted by gayass on 08/29/2010 at 4:06 PM

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/images/users…

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Posted by FGFM on 08/30/2010 at 2:13 PM
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