Gimme Some More Discourse!

by Rachel Eleanor Brown

(Review Originally published in Tattoo Today summer 2022)

Let’s take a look into this book…Shane Enholm’s Tattoo Machine Discourse Volume One. Once I bit into it, I ate it up quick. Shane’s first volume of conversation discusses tattoo machine collecting as a journey to self-enlightment. He reminds us that to begin learning, we must first enact the mantra on knowing we do not know. The philosophy laid forth from the onset of Shane’s book, credited to Socrates, universally echoes the teachings of Musashi; to remain empty is the only way to gain. Or as Bruce Lee taught in his Tao of Jeet Kune Do, remain an empty cup each day so that you can fill yourself with what the day offers to teach you. It is a philosophy to support self-knowledge; it is a belief of humbleness and unknowing that will lead you to discover your own truth.

As many collectors understand, truth often plays second fiddle to a well-spun tale when it comes to the history spoken around tattooing and tattoo machines. The truth we seek does not always belong to hard facts but instead in our pursuit of discovery which leads us to self-knowledge, of the truth becoming whatever serves our purpose for collecting. And couldn’t our tired achy selves deserve a bit more truth? Self-knowledge is the truth we are talking about here.

The meaning of truth carries a discourse all its own. In an age where capital T Truth remains self-evident despite a modern battle to decipher truth for ourselves can be an endless conversation to navigate. But if we keep history in mind, which gives our lives today more context, we see the battle over truth is nothing new; it’s been fought for generations and leads to nowhere and everywhere all at once. All we can really do, is keep an even keel in our beliefs of what we deem true and false. We can remain humble in knowing how much we really do not know, and may never know. What we believe ourselves to be true, can be both malleable and fixed. It is somewhere in this paradox we discover truth for ourselves, through whatever life’s vehicles we choose to drive, or choose to drive us. So in a big way, collecting tattoo machines preserves history in tattooing because it preserves context in our own lives. The better we understand where we came from, the more we can gain clarity of where we are going. Centering the focus on preserving context in our lives, in every way we can, also strengthens our perspective, which directly corresponds to the philosophies we choose to live by.

It deserves to be duly noted, that anyone who collects machines are doing themselves a disservice if they don’t recognize the knowledge they gain through the experience of how they acquire these machines. Collecting does not deserve to be about how much you can buy on the internet to then show off on the internet; collecting is a life experience in itself for better or for worse. Recognize that it is not always the object carrying the experience but the experience itself you are after. Research your own experience, question your own experience. Turn that experience into a mode of education for yourself, a reflection of your own self-knowledge. Place value in what ways the historical context of collecting enriches your experience in tattooing and how you can put that experience to use in your life, through what lessons you take away from it all.

Granted, Shane’s story is uniquely his own. What you take away from reading his story, is yours and yours alone. The beauty in being human, is that to share is to relate: as it is to remind others and to remember yourself. Consider the idea if all books were both written and read for the sole sake of remembering. Take a note from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, “And when they ask us what we’re doing, you can say, We’re Remembering.” Volume One is Shane’s personal experience with machine collecting, and it stands as a testament to how everything we dig into offers us self-knowledge and truth if we take the time to study our own experiences.

Through the passage of time, tattoo machines carry stories and modifications, however the crux of the matter stays the same: Modification is the root of self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency lays the bricks for tattooing’s eternity. If there is a golden nugget of knowledge that our obsession with tattoo machines can enlighten us young ones with, is that the future of tattooing is sealed by self-sufficiency. To be as true as possible to yourself and to the way you make your living, is rooted in how well you think on your feet. How well can you modify your way of doing things, to do it better and faster. Tattooing is no competition but a competition within ourselves to just keep working. Our way of working as tattooers dictates its own sense of semper fidelis; improvise, adapt, and overcome. And if there is a guide through tattooing that we must follow in this light, it is evident in the tools used in our trade. I personally prefer, with a few exceptions, to see the tattooers of the early and mid- 20th century less as innovators and more as modifiers. Intentions were not necessarily to innovate, as they were to modify what’s in front of us to make it work for how we want it to, out of necessity to earn a living. Of course this statement is purely my own opinion, but I get the sense through Shane’s book that he might agree. The book converses around tattoo machines, but provides a wider conversation that tattooers, especially younger generation tattooers, ought to be having. Though right now, with social media being today’s major way of watered down correspondence, I’m personally unaware if these conversations exist enough. I want to believe these conversations are happening more than we know. But the conversation of self-sufficiency is important, as is the conversation surrounding tattoo machines and collecting of all kinds. Why do we do it? Because we care about history? Because without knowing where you started you cannot see where you are headed. History, without any exception, remains the greatest teacher. History provides context to whatever we do today, and with context we gain understanding. The best part is that we understand better just how much we do not know; and this topic of conversation can be applied far broader than to just tattoo machines. It’s just a conversation I hope to see happening, especially among young tattooers since we are the ones who need to keep this train a-rollin’. And even though this book is a conversation about tattoo machines and one man’s experience in collecting them, it is also a book about searching for truth, a book about the importance of asking questions.

And so in what ways, in your life, are you reflecting on your own experiences? How are you centering history to give yourself context into your beliefs and perspective? Are you working harder to be more self-sufficient? And after reading Shane’s book, are you the critic or are you the one who is actually in the arena?

Tattoo Machine Discourse Vol. I &II by Shane Enholm (@shaneenholm3)

available at https://tribalbooks.myshopify.com