Phantom Ink: Masqueraaaade!

Disclaimer: If you have not read or seen the Phantom of the Opera in some form or fashion, then this post will probably be more confusing than interesting. Anyway, here's another blog about ink. Read on if you must.

General Inspiration

My latest tattoo was inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.  In 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber blessed the world with his broadway musical version of the Gaston Leroux novel about the scary man with a mask - who happens to be a genius of music, engineering, and other stuff - running about the Opera Populaire, scaring and killing people as he coaches the soprano, Christine Daae. Yes, that was my run-on sentence summary of the story; too bad, that's all I've got at the moment. Anyway, a more interesting and historically significant note about the show, it became the longest-running Broadway show in 2006, with its 10,000th show on Broadway occurring in 2012 ("Andrew Lloyd Webber, n.d.).

About the Lyrics

In the show, the song, "Masquerade," is performed at, yes, a masquerade ball. You can watch a version of it performed here: Masquerade on Stage. You can also check out the lyrics here: Masquerade Lyrics. The first few chorus lines, "Masquerade, paper faces on parade. Masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you" are also performed by the Phantom in his sorrow at the end of the performance when he decides to let his muse, love, and stalker victim (riiiight?) go free with her love interest, Raoul. You can see that scene here: Phantom of the Opera: Final Scene. Note: The Phantom sings the actual lines from "Masquerade" at about 11:00 minutes. However, feel free to watch the whole scene for added emotion.

The Ink

So, if you have not figured it out by now, I selected a line from the lyrics...

"Masquerade, hide your face so the world will never find you."

I chose this line because I feel it really does remind me of me. All of my life, I have lived in the shadow of my own perfectionism. I wore an emotional mask to hide the depression and anger that lived within me. This mask helped me to cope with the outside world, a world that I felt compelled to constantly please with whatever skills or talents I possessed to feel accepted. Eventually, the mask did me no good, and I fell off of the cliff of demise built by my own desire to be everything and anything to everyone else, losing myself in the process.

Now, the mask is more frequently off, and I am able to deal with the ones I choose to wear, the world must deal with the real monster that is ME. :) This line from "Masquerade" illustrates how I see myself in life. I used to see wearing a mask as a bad thing, but in a sense, we all adapt ourselves to a certain degree depending on the situation we're in at the moment. By getting inked with these lyrics, I do not intend to perpetuate the notion of hiding behind my own masks, but serves as a reminder that in the end, it's all about being who you are, whether you're wearing an emotional/social mask or not. Each one of us has a collection of these masks: we all throw on the employee mask, the significant other mask, the friend mask, the parent mask, the teacher mask from time to time. For me, it's a matter of knowing what mask I'm wearing at the time and what the consequences (good and bad) are for doing so. The be-yourself mask is best, in my opinion, but easier said than done, for many.

The first phase.

Interesting Tidbits Around the Ink...

• The week I was considering getting this tattoo, I was shopping for wines at Grapes a Wine Store and the store owner suggested a new white wine called "Incognito." The emblem on the bottle is a white mask that looks like the Phantom's mask.

• The tattoo artist I contacted at Tattoos by Butler is known for his lettering skills. His name is Angel, one of the nicknames of the Phantom of the Opera. Please check him out if you're on the Big Island looking to get a tattoo with some awesome script lettering.

• In the final scene where the Phantom sings these lines, he is usually singing to the scary musical monkey with the cymbals. When I was growing up, I had a similar scary monkey toy that freaked me out - I kept it hidden in my grandparents' front room closet, but strangely, I would regularly go in there and sing to him. Far from anything dramatic and operatic, I sang the Monchichis theme song to him.

• When the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack came out (we had the cassette tape), I was intrigued by the vocal skills of the performers and loved the layers of music and song that were woven together at various points in the play. My brother and I used to try and belt out some of those notes... and we still do! Hah!

Have you gorged yourself at last in your lust for [ink]?

Yup, another reference to the score. Only dorks like me would get that. Now to get rid of those love handles so I can add on more!