The Small Things
On my left arm, on the edge of what would be called a bicep if there were any muscle to be found there, I have a tattoo; a fine, black line tattoo of a mesh shopping bag, containing a lemon, a tomato, an orange, and a (chocolate) iced gem.
You’re probably wondering what the significance of this particular selection is. A family favourite recipe, perhaps? A particularly challenging round of Ready Steady Cook? The world’s weirdest game of “I went to the shops and I bought”? Rachel Green attempting a tagine? (or perhaps Ellie Kime attempting a rhyme?) None of these, sadly – after all, if I were to get a Ready Steady Cook themed tattoo, it would be of our Lord and Saviour Ainsley Harriott’s face. Instead, it’s an evergreen reminder that the world is a wonderful place to be, and that humans are pretty damn cool.
This may seem like a stretch, but stick with me. The bag and its contents are all based on poems, prose and pictures; and I say this as someone who only knows Spike Milligan’s Ning Nang Nong off by heart. The orange pays homage to Wendy Cope’s poem The Orange, which tells of a time where she bought an orange on her lunch, shared it with her friends, and went on to have a lovely, easy, content afternoon (the final lines are “I love you. I’m glad I exist.”) The lemon is thanks to a line in the poem “Small Kindnesses” by Danusha Laméris, which details some of the ways in which we look after each other without even thinking about it, including someone helping you pick up lemons if you spill them from your grocery bag. The tomato tips it’s hat to Ross Gay and Chapter 80 in “The Book of Delights”, in which he describes taking a tomato plant on a flight, and the conversations it starts, the connection it sparks, and the ‘shower of love’ that ensues. (The flight attendant is so delighted, she offers them an extra seat so that they can stretch their legs - they being Ross, and a tomato plant.) The iced gem, in turn, is thanks to a Little Doodles artwork my boyfriend bought me nearly a decade ago now, in which a very cute, plump bird called George wants to be an iced gem more than anything in the world, and thus wears the little whipped topping as a hat.
Each of these brilliant pieces of artwork manages to put into words something that feels like pure magic. Individually, they’re glorious snapshots of the world around us; all together, they encapsulate the essence and wonder of being human. The blissful, unadulterated joys that can sometimes blindside you with their perfection and purity. The automatic human disposition to look out for each other, even without consciously thinking about it. The childlike awe we all feel when we see something unexpected and pleasing; the flush of delight we can feel rising in our cheeks, before cynicism gets a look in. The enthusiasm and drive we feel, so strong, when we care about something so much that we have to make it happen. (Sure, the last one is based on a bird, but I count George as an honorary human for the purposes of this.)
I know it’s clichéd, but sometimes we get so caught up in searching for the big things, that we don’t take time to look at the small things. In fact, it’s precisely because it’s clichéd that I got it immortalised on my skin in permanent ink. It’s so easy to overlook these moments, these reactions, these feelings, but in reality they’re the building blocks of our everyday life. Start to notice them, and every day can soon become extraordinary, too.