hello ! welcome to newsletter 2, and thank you for being here. sorry there has been such a long gap between newsletters - I’m making it a goal of mine to send these out once every month from now on :)
I wanted to start off light, and share this tattoo I made a couple of days ago! I don’t make hand tattoos very often, but I loooove the placement of them (and this piece especially) so much. shoutout to julia for requesting this bb koi, we love divine yin energy ! this one is not up on instagram yet, so shhhhh …
I’m also going to add that my books are open for April! this is probably why most of you have subscribed to this newsletter, so I will include a link to book w me here: http://oceangao.com/booking !! open to both flash and custom this time around. as always, I’m requesting that you get COVID tested within a week before your appointment :-)
CW: sexual assault (and also me oversharing oops)
I also wanted to give myself some space to talk about the shootings in atlanta last night, which resulted in the death of several asian women. to me, this brings up a lot about the hypersexualization of asian women and how it plays such a big part of the violence we face. (obviously, I don’t identify as a woman, but I’m perceived that way.) I think about this in terms of my own sexual assaults, and it’s fucked up to think things like “no might have meant no if I didn’t look like this.” it’s a mind-fuck to exist as simultaneously an object of lust and an object of hatred, with this shooter “lashing out at sources of temptation.”
I notice hashtags like #stopasianhate and I can’t help but think about how divorced these conversations are from histories of violence against asian people in the U.S., and how they’re framed as a mere consequence of the coronavirus. I think about this tweet, from anthony c. ocampo, who says that “a 21-year-old white guy targeted, shot, and killed multiple Asian women in Atlanta. Never forget that lots of 21-year-old white guys did the same thing across the Pacific.” I think about this tweet by @hermit_hwarang, who writes that “so much of Asian Americanist discourse is trapped by assimilationist frameworks. What if we entertained the possibility that it is not simply that we are treated as if we don’t belong, but that we actually do not belong because this country is our enemy[?]”
I think a primal urge for diasporic peoples is this desire to find/make home, and I wonder what it looks like to create homes on stolen land, what it looks like make home in a country you don’t want to belong to. I wonder what diasporic desires would look like if we moved beyond a need to “belong” somewhere … especially as it seems like belonging is oftentimes (inherently?) predicated on someone else’s non-belonging. I wonder if we can create spaces that are safe for rest, and nourishment, and play, and that cultivates love without belonging. I wonder if we can live in those contradictions.
I haven’t posted publicly about my next sticker drop, but it’s one that I’m really excited about! I’m having them made by a smaller business, so I’m not sure when they’ll be available, but they will be available for purchase. here is a sneak peek!
& last but not least, if you have the desire/means to, please donate to Red Canary Song ! if you’ve been following my work for awhile, their name might be familiar to you! I’ve donated a free tattoo to their fundrasier before :-) Red Canary Song is a grassroots collective of asian & migrant sex workers, which began organizing after Yang Song, a flushing massage worker, was killed in a police raid in 2017. you can check out their work and donate here ! thank you for reading this far — stay safe and take care.
with love from Ocean