As Shannon Larratt is interviewing Stalking Cat, he brings up a point that's quite interesting to me, and entirely relevant to the idea of privacy and unwanted celebrity we discussed earlier in this course.

SL: "... uh you do- you do go to a fair number of tattoo conventions, and you must experience at least a minor celebrity status while you're there."

SC: "Well, you know, in fact, I've only been to a couple conventions-"

SL: "I guess- I guess it's just every one you go to, they will always photo you."

SC: "Right, and my pictures have been plastered all over the place, and uh, it, in a way kind of irritates me, because these people're making money off of something I've spent a great deal of time doing, and I haven't gotten a dime out of it."

SL: "Mmhmm."

SC: "But uh, and uh, and they're basically using my picture to get themselves famous."

SL: "Mmhmm."

SC: "Or to get publicised."

SL: "Yeah."

SC: "But again, I did this for me, not for other people."

SL: "Mmhmm."

There's also been a positive side to this, as it encouraged self-expression amongst the public, and while not exactly normalising it, it allowed people who needed to do stuff like this to accept it and go for it. (But not those who are doing it as a trend.)

Stalking Cat spent a lot of time self-medicating with drugs and alcohol trying to deny their empathy and their connection to different animals, especially cats. Trying to subdue and deny these feelings didn't work very well, but living as a cat counteracted these negative feelings.

Being 1/2 Indian (Native American) & 1/2 White was a very big culture shock to Stalking Cat, as they fought with both the Indians & the Whites for being partially the other race. Stalking Cat accepted the cat/tigress as their spirit animal, which was originally pointed out by the medicine man of Cat's tribe.

Has many tattoos, started with aquatic animals and moved onto cat-type tattoos.

An appearance of insensitivity: this made me think about the association of sailors with tattoo culture, and the masculine toughness (weirdly) attached to submitting to the repeated penetration of a needle.