This is me getting my first tattoo, thanks to my lovely gal. It is the title of an essay by Japanese writer Yukio Mishima entitled “Sun and Steel”. This essay inspired me to seriously and perhaps obsessively confront the reality of the body, and instilled in me an artist’s yearning to sculpt my body through “implements fashioned of steel”.
If my self was my dwelling, then my body resembled an orchard that surrounded it. I could either cultivate that orchard to its capacity or leave it to the weeds to run riot in… . One day, it occurred to me to set about cultivating my orchard for all I was worth. For my purpose, I used sun and steel. Unceasing sunlight and implements fashioned of steel became the chief elements in my husbandry. Little by little, the orchard began to bear fruit, and thoughts of the body came to occupy a large part of my consciousness.
