I love reading people’s tags.
When I go to photography exhibitions, I’m often drawn to the artists’ statements more than the images. On RB, I always take in the tags just as much as I drink in the images. I’m sure the photographers reading this are shaking their heads, but I’m equally sure the writers are grinning :)
On a wintry night with the wind slamming against my window, I’m finishing off some writing for submission, and considering the themes that are woven through many of my words. I’ve been scrolling through the tags to my writing and wondering what they reveal about me; my themes, my obsessions, my traits. I’m sure anyone who knows me can make some predictions about the tags that reoccur: wench, whiskey, faith, ripe, madness, stilettos and ink all get honourable mentions.
I can see that one recurrent theme for me is scents, for I often focus on this all too underrated sense: vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, pears. And my representative animal is undoubtedly the serpent, for words of snakes, hissing and Medusa pour out of me in infrequent bursts. I know what they symbolise to me, a shining mix of seduction, psychosis and rebirth, and this is why I have thirteen of them tattooed on my body. I am a little surprised, however, to see how often they poke their heads out of my pen, and shed their skins on my keyboard.
But the tags that came up most, in order, are desire, regeneration, blood, honey, and gold.
I do wonder what that says about me.
Anne van Alkemade
,
5 months ago
This is real food for thought, Bell. I have just scrolled through my writing and I can find no firm, common thread really. I guess life in general, and lots to do with air like winds, breezes are recurring themes; also psychic, ghostly, ephemeral and twisting lives, fairies, bugs, housework and the latest – underarm hair. Perhaps this indicates how scattered and unfocussed my mind seems to be??
bellmusker in reply to Anne van Alkemade’s comment, 5 months ago
Hehehe….or how versatile your interests and inspirations are! A question about breezes and the like: are you an air sign, by any chance? Just curious…..
Faith Hunter, 5 months ago
Great topic! Thanks for bringing it up.
Tags are meant to be such a practical thing and yet as you’ve bought out, they do provide this whole sub-text about the artist.
What I find interesting is how your tags change.
What seems like the obvious tags for a particular picture, a few weeks later can have you shaking your head and thinking “huh, what was i thinking of, why did I put THAT there?”
There is a pinot-noir-consumption index for measuring the likelihood of this happening, but not always. Sometimes there is just no explanation for how one person can exist in such a different brainspace from one day to the next. I take the positive view that its a good thing, sign of artistic development rather than intellectual degeneration. ;-)
PJ Ryan, 5 months ago
Oh you’re fabulous.
Sometimes i write a tag and wonder if anyone else would ever think to actually type that into search lol
Anne van Alkemade
,
5 months ago
Aquarius. Funny that! LOL.
bellmusker in reply to Faith Hunter’s comment, 5 months ago
Faith, I’ve never thought to change my tags…god, that shows what a stubborn little wench I am, hehe (oops, there goes that ‘w’ word again). I like your pinot-noir-consumption index too!
bellmusker in reply to PJ Ryan’s comment, 5 months ago
Nic, I spend too much time tag surfing….the linguist in me never grows tired of playing with words :)
bellmusker in reply to Anne van Alkemade’s comment, 5 months ago
Ah…..now how did I know that? ;)
Laurie McClave, 5 months ago
Oooh I love this thread of thought! i have to check myself out now!!!!lol
butchart, 5 months ago
i don’t use tags on my writing… never even thought about it… i guess that says something… maybe that i write it for me.. but post it anyways….... now i have to fiure out why i do THAT
mstrace, 5 months ago
very interesting topic. not being a linguist like the beautiful bell I was treating tags in a linear logical fashion. applying tags almost as “topics” instead of actual words that might threaded throughout the writing itself. all in a boring effort to help a reader find some writing about “lust” for instance. so I went back and looked and damned if a few words didn’t rear their little heads several times. seems as if i might be obsessed at some level, on the following:
tongue
broken
howl
God
mouth
bones
throat
skin
dream
song
black
breathe/breath
door
Question is…should I change my tags? I am certainly not attached to the standard tags I have been using. And how well do they really work for helping a reader locate something? Okay, I’m off to ponder…
warmsugarcube, 5 months ago
vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, pears.. yummy combination. think i’ll cook that up this weekend. oh yum, i really want to eat that right now :)
with the tags, i did that on another art site i’m on.. copied my list of tags and used them for the artist profile. i thought it summed up what was going on with me at that moment..
SwaySlayer, 5 months ago
I don’t use tags.
I shudder to think what that says about me.
Besides being lazy of course.
LittleHelen, 5 months ago
Oh your tags are gorgeous :D
I actually don’t tag that often anymore but…if i do I generally use death, love, lust, sex and I have been known to use Penis :| I know…why in the hell would I use Penis as a tag :( Haaaaahahaha
Hugs xxoo
Kristy Lee, 4 months ago
hehehe …your tags are delectable.
My tags are all dreamy and fey. Things like life, love, connection, spirit, beauty and of course erotic and sensual have to be in there too ;)
greeneyedlady, 4 months ago
i don’t even use tags….what does that say about ME??
by the way, you are Scorpio, correct?
bellmusker in reply to greeneyedlady’s comment, 4 months ago
Hehe, a common assumption….I’m Cancerian, with my moon in Scorpio. Water, water everywhere, with a hefty dose of intense lunar energy. Couldn’t be half-hearted if I tried ;-)
greeneyedlady, 4 months ago
well i wasn’t _too_far off the mark!!!