PERFECT PUSSY // Imperfect, Flawed and Beautiful

Upstairs at Chapel Tattoo, Meredith Graves touches at a wayward strand of her sand-coloured hair, smoothing it back into place. “I cannot get my hair to behave”, she murmurs. It’s a queer juxtaposition from the power she expels on stage, the strength in her words, and to see her absently fuss with something so minute, something that only she could notice.

As the lead singer for New York state punk band PERFECT PUSSY, she’s confident with the words that fall from her red lips, a rapid-fire of precocious sparks that are her truth. Graves’ self-taught awareness of beauty and self-expression in a problematic and damaging social system are a constant battle for others and for herself. Beauty only skims the surface, but ugly can go deep and clean to the bone.

“Beauty is something I think about a lot in relation to myself,” says Graves. “Anyone in a western nation has the privilege to set the standard for beauty globally. The Western ideal of ‘thinness’ and gender or being able-bodied or looking a certain way. It’s so hyper specific. We’ve gone off and poisoned the world.”

“Being a performer for a living – and having this tiny amount of public-figure-dom – I get to think about beauty in relation to how it’s perceived by others. I do believe beauty is vital for self-expression.”

 Outside Chapel Tattoo // Photo by Lachlan Monty

Like all women, her insecurities leave her apprehensive to be exposed when she’s feeling vulnerable. Yet unlike all women, she openly examines them.  Does she get stronger as time goes by?

“I would be lying. I get more and more insecure. I’ve never been photographed a lot before so for me, having my picture taken is an emotionally damaging experience. Even being photographed on stage is not pretty. Fluctuations in my weight, times that I’ve needed a haircut, times that I’ve looked tired or been sick or I wear something unflattering. It’s all on the internet. I have very low self-esteem. I like to play with beauty but at the end of the day, do I define myself fundamentally beautiful? Absolutely not at all.”

The face that stares back at her from the mirror is as symmetrical as a cherub with kerosene-lit eyes, unnervingly refined, like a docile animal that will turn furious when challenged by ignorance or by ineptitude. “What really gives me confidence is being allowed to speak, been given space to write and having my opinions trusted, being seen as intelligent,” comments Graves.

Before // Photo by Lachlan Monty

“I don’t give two shits about how people think I look because I’ve always dressed for myself as a defence against… well…” She pauses. “Fundamentally, I may know that I look like garbage but at least I get to choose. I’m in control.”

“It’s a complex life for me right now. I’m working 18 hours a day for amazing opportunities while pulling my hair out at the process! I photograph my bandmates because they’re so beautiful, with this distinct style. In my everyday life, I’m surrounded by people of all genres, all background, all sexualities, presentations, body types who are all very concerned with the way they look. But I feel totally supported in the way I look.”

Cultural appropriation in the tattoo industry is something that Graves sees as highly damaging and creatively void. Culture is not a trend. Culture is not a commodity and therefore could be considered something to tire of, something disposable.

“There are a lot of images in traditional tattooing that have appropriated by the Western world. I see people getting tattoos of things that they’re willing to denote as traditional when actually, they’re racist. If I see another white person with a Japanese-style back piece done by a white person, I’m going to rip my hair out.”

History shouldn’t be represented by someone that has no idea of the cultural genocide of entire continents, stolen generations, and the eradication of tribes and their cultural traditions.

The Work // Photo By Lachlan Monty

“I hate it. I hate that shit. Every culture from all over the world from the start of human existence and civilisation has had tattooing. Tattooing is one of the most omnipresent practices. It’s like language; every civilisation since the beginning of time has had some sort of way to mark their body, and these are universal and global practices. That means, you don’t have to steal it from someone else’s culture. We have the neo-tribal bohemian types, the anarchy/crusty type vegans that get Maori style tattoos. They don’t even know they’re getting.”

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“The one thing I’ve learnt is everyone in the world has a tattoo and it’s not anything special.”

[MEREDITH]

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“It is mortifying,” she continues. “It the worst kind of racism. When you’re willing to say that your aesthetic is more important than a person’s culture – a person who would be ridiculed and killed and colonised – for wearing for thousands of years. When you’re the coloniser and you’re stealing from a culture that you’ve destroyed, you really gotta learn your boundaries. So no, I do think it’s totally acceptable to scrutinise a person’s appearance. I don’t want to see white people with dreadlocks and Native American tattoos and whole bunch of other shit they’ve effectively tried to stamp out.”

“White people can’t have everything. If the person whose culture you’re stealing from doesn’t get to look how they want, you don’t get to look like you want. That’s basic human decency.”

There’s a huge difference between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange.

“Do your research. Pick something that has great meaning to you,” says Graves. “It’s speculative. It’s on a person to person basis. Take something from your own goddamn country. You want to show off you cultural relevance? Get your family crest tattooed. Get an abstract tattoo. Create something new. Don’t steal from people that have everything stolen from them. Look into what you’re putting on your body forever, and I say this as person who has ‘pizza’ tattooed on her ankle.”

The Look // Photo By Lachlan Monty

“Every asshole has tattoos. It’s like the least special thing a person can possibly do. Everybody wants to separate themselves with fancy shit.”

Tattoo discrimination is a dead subject for a near dead generation that associated and reserved tattooed people as being unsavoury or antisocial. Graves dismisses the idea that we live in a world where there is bias against people with tattoos. There are far concerning discriminations to tackle.

“The people that want to run around saying ‘I’m discriminated against’ are 9 times out of 10 white people—And you’re also probably an asshole. A six year old African American girl who can’t wear her hair natural at school because her teachers will send them home because they’re a distraction: That’s discrimination. Trans people that aren’t allowed to present the way they want at their place employment. Those are people that are being discriminated against. If your boss asks you to wear long sleeves because you work at the desk of a hotel, you don’t need to call the Civil Rights Bureau. You need put on your sleeves and go to work.”

Wrapped up // Photo By Lachlan Monty

Meredith Graves uses her intelligence as a firing pin, and even if she thinks her intelligence is the most beautiful thing about her, she can’t see her face change sharply and light up when she’s passionate with her words. Her words are the mirror she holds up to her audience, to reflect her ethos into whoever challenges her. She turns her arm to show the new tattoo she got his morning, a simply thin-lined airplane.

“The number on the flag is the total number of miles we flew to get from New York City to here. I did the math last night and it’s New York City to Dubai to Auckland to Sydney to Melbourne. 17,290 miles.”

Before Graves leaves – on a whim or thought through – she asks the tattoo artist to tattoo something simple in the space where her collarbones meet.  It’s a simple font, a three letter word. The strongest word in the English language: Yes.

Yes // Photo By Lachlan Monty

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PHOTO GALLERY

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Remaining Perfect Pussy Australian Tour Dates

Wed-Feb-04 Sydney, AUS, Newtown Social Club
Fri-Feb-06 Adelaide, AUS, Laneway Festival
Sat-Feb-07 Melbourne,VIC, Laneway Festival
Sun-Feb-08 Perth, AUS, Laneway Festival