{"id":36,"date":"2015-12-06T08:20:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T08:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/?p=36"},"modified":"2015-12-06T08:20:38","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T08:20:38","slug":"of-various-art-and-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/2015\/12\/06\/of-various-art-and-islam\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Various Art and Islam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOh, shit. Not today. Oh, no,no,no.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I stare at the clock for a slight second before I grab my jacket and run out the door.<\/em><\/p>\n

You see, I work as a tattoo artist and I\u2019m actually pretty good at what I do. And today, I am interviewing for the Tattoo Galore. Yes, the biggest and most famous tattoo parlour in all of New York. Not just the city; the whole state. Last year, they ranked no.1 in the Tat-a-Tat List, which is the holy grail of the tattooing world.<\/em><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t tell you how long I\u2019ve dreamed of this. Ever since I wanted to get my first tattoo at 17\u2014a diamond engraved with the initials of my grandmother\u2014I had been in love with the world of tattoos. In a world so alienating, any sort of identity is welcome. It was my second year of college when I realized I wanted to become a tattoo artist. So, you see, there are two aspects of tattoo art; one\u2019s actually imprinting the art onto skin, but the most important part is satisfying the imagination of your customers. If they tell you they want a unicorn, and you notice their hair is a specific colour of purple, that\u2019s what you incorporate into the design. It\u2019s so fulfilling to see the look on their face when you give them what they didn\u2019t even know they wanted.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anyway, I digress.<\/em><\/p>\n

This interview. Let\u2019s come back to it. Let me tell you how I got it. Last month, I was shopping at CVS and this lady came up to me. She said she loved the tattoo work on my arms; that it was intricate enough to be personable. There\u2019s little works of art embedded in the bigger works and you need to have a good eye to be able to spot them. I knew this woman knew her stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThanks, I did them myself. \u201c I awkwardly laughed. The reason I hid the art was so no one but me would be able to notice it.<\/em><\/p>\n

She was still staring at the upper corner of my right arm\u2014the dragon fly with a hundred tiny little butterflies surreptitiously hid in the wings. An ode to the countless strangers you interact with everyday. For every human\u2019s existence to have mattered to me. A desperate attempt at juicing meaning out of life.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, not all of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to reach some parts of the arm. A friend helps, but the designs were all mine,\u201d I muttered trying to waver her gaze from my arms. I felt invaded. I also realized, at that point, how proud I was of the secrecy and the intricacy of my work.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m blown away. You are one talented girl.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And there it was: my ticket to my dream. If I get there in time.<\/em><\/p>\n

The bus is taking forever today. I could have taken the Subway but I\u2019d forgotten my card. Thank God, I always carry quarters. Once I\u2019m on the bus, I pull out my pocket Quran and begin to recite. This is part of my daily routine. Before anything big, I remember God more than usual. But, today, I\u2019d missed my morning prayer. It\u2019s okay, though. I\u2019ll offer it later. The bus starts moving, and so do my lips, as I began to mouth the magic words that instantly soothe me. I can\u2019t explain it, and I\u2019ve stopped trying. It\u2019s like when people ask me why I like to \u2018pain\u2019 myself with needles.<\/em><\/p>\n

The only answer I\u2019ve come up with is to each his own. <\/em><\/p>\n

And this is me.<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

This piece ties in the theme of diversity amongst all religions. We tend to generalize Muslims with beards and the hijab, forgetting that there our millions that don’t fit the stereotypical description. Peeking into different regions where Islam prevails was also tantamount to this conclusion. This prose depicts a woman who, in my imagination, is covered with tattoos but also takes solace in her Islamic faith. In Islam, the dominant perception of tattoos is a negative one. Some say they are forbidden; some say they are frowned upon. But, that’s another story of interpretations. But, art is such an integral part of Islamic history and tattoo art is also just one form of it. However, it is unaccepted in popular Islam. I just wanted to shed light upon many other sorts in which art is expressed that dont necessarily have to be in conflict with Islam. Again, it depends on ‘who’s’ Islam we’re referring to, and ‘which’ Islam we’re referring to. Many pick and choose from religion but still have the tendency to comment on the choices of other people. Tattoos are also considered an emblem of the West. This piece also touches upon the theme of the intersection of Islam with the West. The popular notion of the incompatibility of the two is challenged by this narrative where the two seem perfectly in sync with each other; both unexplainable aspects of the character. This was also partly influenced by books such as Persepolis and Jasmine and the Stars that focused on specific identities of a person’s islam. Not everyone looks, acts, feels the same. In the same vein, no two people practice religion the same way. It is all about a person’s worldview and their personal experiences. A Muslim from Africa might not see eye to eye with an American Muslim, and that goes to show the spectrum in which Islam is manifested and practiced.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOh, shit. Not today. Oh, no,no,no.\u201d I stare at the clock for a slight second before I grab my jacket and run out the door. You see, I work as a tattoo artist and I\u2019m actually pretty good at what I do. And today, I am interviewing for the Tattoo Galore. Yes, the biggest and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7875,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/frsmrzuneera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}