May 13, 2007

I received an email from a guy named Nathan interested in my fascination with the octopus and why I’d choose to tattoo myself with the creature’s image. He attached a quote from the late philosopher Terrence McKenna about the animal. I think it says it all.

"Consider: Nature offers the example of the octopus, a creature in which well-developed eyes and an ability to change the color, banding, and general appearance of the skin surface have favored a visual, and hence telepathic, form of communication.  An octopus does not communicate with spoken words as we do, even though water is a good medium for acoustical signaling; rather, the octopus becomes its own linguistic intent.  The octopus is like a naked nervous system, say rather a naked mind: the inner states, the thoughts, if you will, of the octopus are directly reflected in its outward appearance.  It is as though the octopus were wearing its mind on its exterior.  This is in fact the case.  The octopus literally dances its thoughts through expression of a series of color changes and position changes that require no vocal linguistic conventions for understanding as do our words and sentences.  In the world of the octopus to behold is to understand.  Octopi have a large repertoire of color changes, dots, blushes, and traveling bars that move across their surfaces;  this ability in combination with the soft-bodied physique of the creature allows it to obscure and reveal its linguistic intent simply by rapidly folding and unfolding different parts of its body.  The octopus does not transmit its linguistic intent, it becomes its linguistic intent.  The mind and the body of the octopus are the same and are equally visible.  This means that the octopus wears its language like a kind of second skin;  it appears to be and becomes what it seeks to mean.  There is very little loss of definition or signal strength among communicating octopi.  Indeed, their well-known use of "ink" clouds to conceal themselves may indicate that this is the only way that they can have anything like a private thought.  The ink cloud may be ad of correction fluid for voluble octopi who have misspoken themselves.  Like the octopus, our destiny is to become what we think, to have our thoughts become our bodies and our bodies become our thoughts."