Connecting the Dots

Joseph J. Jingle

 

His name might have been a sign of some misfortune had he been an advertising man instead of a poet. Joseph J. (John) Jingle. A singular name at best, and, perhaps, ironic in the course of his life.

Joseph was not extraordinary at any time until eleven days after his thirteenth birthday. He was just an active boy. Bicycles. Hikes with friends. Tree climbing. Reading adventure books under the cover of night in the summer with a flashlight. Generally a pleasant boy.

Do not take that last statement to make you think anything unpleasant arose about Joe Jingle. It is just that on the eleventh day after his thirteenth birthday he started writing on his body in ink. Joseph had three small but distinct birthmarks, abrupt dark brown spots each one about one inch in diameter. They were irregular in shape but mostly circles. One was on his left foot, on the top when the shoe tongue ended. Another was over his right kidney, kind of one-third of the way to his back, where scratching ends. The third birthmark was on his neck below his left ear.

He began to write poetry in ink connecting the dots on his body, an obsession in his life that consumed his time when he was not delivering newspapers, then driving a soda delivery truck, followed by his college studies and then a career as an accountant. Joseph J. Jingle was a very nice, accommodating, friendly person. It was several years, nearly two decades, before people learned how much poetry and ink covered his torso, when he started to ink his poetry above the collar line of the turtle neck shirts and sweaters he typically wore.

Joe’s body of art looked odd to most people who had not experienced ink and tattoo art, let alone read Joseph’s poetry in the surround. The few individuals who had seen him, such as a college Professor who actually read Joe’s body when he turned it in as the completion of an assignment, found the poetry profound even if the presentation was obscure. Joe was a thoughtful and expressive author, only penning and connecting grand ideas as he applied worked both arts simultaneously.

Tattoo artists, ink stick men, and calligraphers alike enthused about Joseph J. Jingles accomplishment in maintaining artistic integrity of his line and the use natural organic colors and dyes. The art itself was an amazing statement and accomplishment. Poets were less generous. They did not embrace the words and the style, let alone embrace Joe. He was the first to admit that reading some of the text took courage, heart and determination. But, Joseph said, think about what was required to ink those portions? A thought!

Joseph became a study for various groups of people: artists, writers, tattoo parlor mavens, bikers, scholars and investigators of many types. Journalists were naturally attracted to Joseph’s story, and eventually he was forced to hire a literary agent to negotiate for his time, to control his opportunity cost. That saddened him of course, but he never turned the public away. Ever. His dexterity displayed in keeping a line while connecting over his pate or an eyebrow was measured in laser-term. Literally, with laser precision to chart how exact his control of the ink placement was maintained, science plotted his line, color and precision.

But sadly the investigators and scholars frequently forgot to measure his words, ignoring the body of his work.