“For now, what I rue most days is not what I’ve put on my skin, but what I’ve put on the Internet. Cached, reblogged, and saved by others, the photos of my tattoos will stick around after I’m gone, while the tattoos themselves will perish when I do. Sometimes I wish I could disappear my online presence altogether when I die—but I can’t, so instead I daydream about cremation, about the way my old skin will burn up like a diary.”
Sarah Nicole Prickett, “The Pros and Cons of Getting a Tattoo”, Vogue, 2014.
A while ago on a previous blog I touched on maintaining an online presence and the necessity of doing so for an artist. It reminded me of the quote above, which I finally located to share with you. I find it quite disconcerting, the thought of all those digital tombstones floating about on the Internet. I wonder how many there are now; the dead’s Facebook accounts…Instagram, Twitter, dating sites…all populated by ghosts? Our technology has made real the spirit world. They speak to us from beyond the grave. This is one of the reasons why I left Facebook: the idea of an electronic ghost “me” existing after I have died creeps the hell out of me! It kind of reminds of the TV ghosts in Spielberg’s Poltergeist (1982): “They’re here!” The artist persona, swany, if I have created anything of worth, will remain to be researched and discussed. If not, well then gone, and moved on with me as it should be. But that is who will be haunting the internet, swany, not me.
Talking about ghosts, did you know that Heather O’Rourke died at the age of just 12 as a result of cardiac arrest caused by septic shock due to intestinal stenosis? She was the cute little blonde girl in the movie who delivered that famous line. She had just completed filming her third Poltergeist film when she died. AND…all told four cast members died during and soon after the filming of the series.Dana Freeling, who played the original older sister, met an equally tragic end. Dunne separated from her partner, John Sweeney, Sweeney showed up at her house, pleading for her to take him back. When she refused, he attacked her and choked her, leaving her dead in her Hollywood driveway. It was these deaths which gave rise to the urban legend of the Poltergeist curse. They have just remade the original Poltergeist movie and I am sure I am not alone in wondering whether the curse will rear its ugly head again.
And so ends my creepy Halloween tale for this year.
Boo!