Iconography.
Yesterday I had an image of a raven’s feather tattooed onto my right wrist. It both itches and represents the following five things that I value:
Flight
I just think flight is an amazing ability. When you consider the amount of technological expertise that goes into making humans fly and see that birds are just born with it…I’m a little envious. The idea of freedom, and daring, and the sense that limits are arbitrary; these are things I associate with the concept of flight.
Literature
There are a number of ravens that appear in some of my favorite works of fiction and poetry, most notably Poe’s The Raven, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.
Mythology
I am a mythology buff by choice; the feather brings to mind the Raven of Native American myth as well as Odin’s ravens Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory).
Love
When my relationship with my wife was still in its earliest stages, I wrote her a story about the last days of Quetzalcoatl, the great Plumed Serpent of the Aztecs, that was designed to function as both an oral legend that had never been told and a profession of affection. Feathers played an important part in the story I wrote for her.
Writing
I’m a writer. It’s a pen. Feeding into my predilection for meta-narrative, I enjoy knowing that I had somebody ink a pen into my arm.
Creative Control 