#biterphobia

Eminem - Biterphobia

I am shook by the fact that this fuckin gem has been sitting on YT for 16 years and yesterday’s the first time I’m hearing it X_o_X

By: Lovette Rosado

    Sitting down on the floor feeding canned Vienna Sausages to her soon to be one year old daughter, Mandee Santiago is talking to her mother Eva about Mrs. Powell, a woman they both knew very well who was dying.

    “Don’t waste time,” was the last words they heard from Mrs.Powell.

These words had an impact on Mandee and triggered an idea far more than she would have ever expected them too.

    Reflecting on that day she spoke to Mrs.Powell Mandee remembers why she embraces everything and everyone around her. I watch Mandee go back in time for a moment. She softly places her straight black hair behind her left ear and her big beautiful brown eyes scrutinizes the room.

 “I’ve always wanted to get a pocket watch tattooed with the time 3:33.”

When I ask her the significance of 3:33, she tells me that it is a number that she had always loved.

    “You know how they say that the number 666 is supposedly evil? Well, I believe myself to be half that number, not evil, not an angel, but two different kinds of people.”

    How interesting I thought to myself. I could not see Mandee being “evil” at all, she was wearing a back polka dot shirt and light blue jeans, looking so sweet and feminine. Then I look down at her feet, and she’swearing dark grey military boots. Truly a young woman who is kind and strong.

    I only get a fraction of Mandee’s attention. She is always aware of what her daughter is doing. Again she is two people, a mother and a friend. She goes on to show me her tattoos, describing them with unique stories.

    “I got this one with Danny,”she shows me a finger tattoo that reads “Forever Yours” on her left ring finger. “We wanted to get a couple’s tattoo and this is what we came up with.”

    Mandee has seven tattoos, and as she tells me why and where she got them, and where she got them, I am fascinated by this idea of modification.

    Mandee has this obsession with creating and modifying what is already beautiful, or embracing the most beautifully grotesque things in the world. A love for Tim Burton and his films like, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline illustrates just that. Characters like Sally and Coraline are part of an alternate world, created by threads, needles, and buttons. They are intertwined in a world that embraces evil, while being afraid of good because it is unfamiliar to them. Mandee feels connected to these characters. While these are just merely movie characters they are also physical dolls that were created for the big screen and hold a sense of symbolism for Mandee.

    “It’s like my alter ego,”Mandee explains.

She begins explaining the ribbon tattoos that she has on her calves. They are a very soft pink and delicate looking, no harsh line work or dark colors. But what makes these tattoos unique is that they appear to be embedded in her flesh. For as long as she can remember, she has wanted her tattoos to incorporate ribbons, stitching, and buttons that would go all along her spine.

    “My original idea was for the back of my body to look like a tucked in doll,” she tells me while making a tucked in gesture with her hands.

    I was pleased to attend her most recent tattoo session. A nearly four hour project was filled with lots of hand-clenching pain. Mandee had her daughter’s name, Madison Jade tattooed on her left shoulder blade with elements that have always been apart of Mandee’s life. The tattoo looks as if you have taken a sewing kit and dropped it on the floor. There are a variety of buttons in all sizes and colors, a yellow measuring tape with the numbers 4-20-12 (Madison’s birthdate) on it, a pin holder with vintage pins, a spool, a needle with thread, safety pins, and Madison Jade’s name that appears to be stitched in her skin. The tattoo is a clear representation of the tools needed to create and modify a doll or clothes. However, her doll no longer is an inanimate object, but her daughter.

      “I made her,” Mandee says with a smile on her face.

Eminem- Biterphobia