Geniza for a gentile
I've been reading Matthew Battles' Library: An Unquiet History (yes, I am that nerdy) and it makes me think of the possibilities of the word "geniza" as a tattoo, since he devotes quite a few pages to the one in Cairo. A geniza is the place in a synagogue where books would be stored when they had outlived their usefulness. Eventually they'd be buried. In theory, it'd be religious books, given that it would be disrespectful to throw out something that contained the name of god, but in practice, secular documents have been stored in them too. I just love the idea of acknowledging that you need to get rid of some of your books, but also acknowledging that they're too important to just throw away. Battles refers to it as "where the books go to die". I was thinking of putting it at the top of my spine, as I already have a literary idea for my lower back: an open book with a pair of glasses resting on it, with "305.4 cf 306.7" scribbled above it.
Thing is, I'm not actually Jewish, which opens up issues of cultural appropriation and whatnot. I find something dodgy about white people with kanji tattoos they don't really understand, and I don't really think a Hebrew word is much better. I guess it's a question of whether a geniza is seen as predominantly book-related or predominantly god-related. I'd have to do a lot more reading about the word and the practice. And then you've got the thing where it could look disrespectful given one interpretation says Jews shouldn't have tattoos at all (though other people interpret that verse to mean just tattoos in honour of the dead). It's easy to say "it's your body!", but I don't really want something on my body that's disrespectful to other cultures, or that I don't properly understand.
Hmmmm.
It is a beautiful idea, though.
Thing is, I'm not actually Jewish, which opens up issues of cultural appropriation and whatnot. I find something dodgy about white people with kanji tattoos they don't really understand, and I don't really think a Hebrew word is much better. I guess it's a question of whether a geniza is seen as predominantly book-related or predominantly god-related. I'd have to do a lot more reading about the word and the practice. And then you've got the thing where it could look disrespectful given one interpretation says Jews shouldn't have tattoos at all (though other people interpret that verse to mean just tattoos in honour of the dead). It's easy to say "it's your body!", but I don't really want something on my body that's disrespectful to other cultures, or that I don't properly understand.
Hmmmm.
It is a beautiful idea, though.