Awesome Tattoos

Posts Tagged ‘skokie library’

Technically, I’m not a librarian at the moment.  I’m a circulation clerk here at Skokie Library and I’ve been here for a little over two years.  I got my master’s degree in library science from Dominican University in January of this year. You came to library school in a circuitous way. Can you tell our readers what you were doing prior to that? Before I decided to go back to school, I had a career in the theater.  I did just about everything that happened backstage, I was never an actor.  I started as an undergrad at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan and that was a great place to learn a bit of everything.  the theater department was relatively small (it was lumped in with music and dance) but we did three or four productions a semester, in addition to scenes and one-act plays that students did for class, as well as some lab productions. the good thing for me was that there weren’t really many tech people at Oakland, everyone wanted to act.  so, when I said that acting was the one thing I didn’t want to do, they basically gave me the keys to the scene shop, lighting booth and sound area and let me loose.  I met another tech-minded person during that semester; we basically did all the backstage stuff for the next two years.  After I graduated, I worked as a theatrical carpenter for a few seasons at the Attic Theater in Detroit as well as doing some lighting and sound work at other local theaters. When I realized that being a theater technician was turning into a career, I decided I needed to move somewhere that had more opportunities and Chicago was that place.  I freelanced at various theaters for about two years and then got a job running wardrobe at Steppenwolf Theater.  that ended up turning into a 12 – year gig.  the funny thing is, the one thing I didn’t do much of as an undergrad at Oakland or during my freelance years was wardrobe.  I did, however, know how to do laundry.  I did lots and lots of laundry at Steppenwolf in those 12 1/2 years. Oh, the glamor and fame! At some point, you began to collect tattoos. how old were you and what got you started? I didn’t get my first tattoo until I was 28 but I’d wanted one since I had been in my teens.  I knew that it wouldn’t go over very well at home though, so I waited until I moved out to Chicago to get my first.  It marked the decision to move here in order to really pursue a theater career.  My parents have both passed so they never saw any of my tats.  I think my mom would have liked them though.  My dad, probably not so much. the choice of image for that first tattoo, in addition to marking the move to Chicago, also reflects my love for heavy metal music.  the image is the symbol of a band called Queensryche.  their music, as well as music from all the other bands I listened to growing up (and still listen to today!) really helped to shape me as a person.  those bands also got me through some tough times.  in addition to the Queensryche tat, I’ve got a tattoo of Eddie, the mascot from Iron Maiden.  they are still my favorite band to this day, 29 years after I saw them for the first time in 1982 at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan.