My Dead Things Diary

So, it all started because I’ve been thinking a lot about tattoos lately and with hearing my coyotes the other night, I started dreaming about my Micoa/Melahuac tattoo again.  Then I remembered that when I found Micoa, there was also a vulture that had been hit and killed by a car who was presumably trying to scavenge him.  It was sad to see, but it’s been a while and I had kinda forgotten about it.  In remembering it, I thought perhaps I could add vultures to my coyote tattoo, or at least have the vulture beside Micoa in order to honor the poor scavenger.  I was about to tell someone my idea when I accidentally hit the “c” key instead of “v” when it hit me.

Vulture Culture.

I was so excited that I immediately felt my heart race because it was so perfect, especially because it went so well with Naturepunk’s recent suggestion that a vulture should be the mascot of the taxidermy community (which, even though I’m not a taxidermist, I feel like it kinda applies to us bone collectors too).  Aside from deciding that I definitely want a vulture tattoo with the words “Vulture Culture” to honor the poor vulture and my bone collecting “hobby” (if I can even call it a mere hobby anymore), I realized its potential as a term for us as a community.  I was waiting to say anything about it until I had drawn up a design to debut it with, but after this fiasco with the “Bone Queen” issue and being encouraged by Watserbones to release it, I felt that perhaps now would be a good time.