The Woman with the Tattooed Hands

you all can't spell worth a damn. euphorica speaks from the heart. "he's a poet in a sense" "its almost even poetic." This is ridiculous! Do you know what rap stands for? Rythmic American POETRY!!! it is poetry, Slug is a poet. this song is much deeper than a woman "fisting" herself. "A mirrored image of the same female...this one she explained looked like the devil." Female, male... it doesnt matter it breaks down to humanity. Humanity embodies both good and bad.

abovetherim has it exactly right. this song is so fucking amazing, it's even almost poetic in a sense. go pick up every Atmosphere album you can find, you won't regret it.

I can play the last verse in my mind all day without getting sick of it :p A very thought-provoking song. Whether Slug was high or not, the message is still the same. Who are we to even think we can fathom or interpret god? The woman with tattooed hands represents the hardcore bible thumper who thinks they know everything about heaven and hell. By their own delerius ideas, they isolate themselves from others (in this case, men) That's off the top of my head, though it makes sense to me.

"God didn't create man in his own image, Man created god in his own image." - Xenophanes

I've always looked at this song symbolically. I don't agree with the person who said that she was alienating herself from men with religion, I always thought of her as not necessarily needing lovers because she felt complete. The ending seems to be about not letting ideas of right and wrong inhibit us nor turn us into nihilists, but living with passion. That's how I try to live.

This woman is in love with her hands, and signified this by painting the images of good and evil on them.

Seemingly religious, Slug is commenting on the infatuation mankind has with this biblical conflict between good and evil. She distances herself from other men, or the joys of life, for her own masturbatory activities of God.

You MIGHT go so far as to say that Slug believes religion is masturbatory. I'd have to agree.

This song is about the duality of life.... god on one hand, devil on the other. Good and evil work together in very mysterious ways to fuel the world and this is Slug's poetic expression of that idea. Damn good song, thanks Slug.

"But it was the way that she interacted She was aggressively passive to the point Where she would have intimidated any mitt that ever tried to catch it"

Though I'm positive Slug didn't think of this, he speaks true about one negative effect of masturbation. Once you know how to please yourself, you're likely to fulfill your desire alone, ceasing the aching search for someone else. At the expense of crippling your soul, spirit, and mind, you retreat with certainty into self-satisfaction.

"And showed me why she never took some time with a man ... It didn't make sense how she could commence Touching herself with me wide awake in the same room."

... It's interesting to note the way he describes her body--sweet flower, womb, garden--all these bear seeds, children, new life.

In actuality, the woman is not bearing life. Sex is reserved for her hands, for no real people she knows, for no children and no future.

... "The tattoos smiled ... stared ... anticipating when they'd be allowed to caress [her, sexually]... they both seemed to hunger. "

What he describes is a twisted adoration/worship. (A false vision. God and the Devil don't adore and worship people in this way, as if a person were immortal and they were not. It fits neither of their natures.)

... He feels changed by this vision. "It felt so right ... I just got turned ... I was concerned for each one of 'em I've hurt and every time I've been burned ... "There's good and evil in each individual fire Identifies needs and feeds our desires As long as we keep our spirit inspired She can bite her bottom lip all she wants."

With these words, he suddenly reconciles the binary of hurting/being hurt by each woman in his life with a mysterious overarching balance depicted by the tattooed woman "taking in all that she can."

... "There's good and evil ..."

Good and evil, Slug says, will continue as long as people continue.
God and the Devil, he abstracts from the vision, serve the same purpose, one fiercely independent from the participation of man.

... Slug came away with an erroneous ideal, one many people come to from considering the quandaries of faith. It is much easier to believe that good and evil are just two sides of the same coin--a coin that creates and satisfies our lust for beauty, sex, and autonomy--it's much easier to believe in this coin, something we all have in our pockets, than in God.

God is all good, He earnestly seeks us, seeks to open us to adoration and love, loves us perfectly, died for our failings, and He urges us not to abide in them. The Devil does not love us, hates that we're loved by God in our imperfection, despises us for the weaknesses he exploits. These are truths we often resist.

:) This song is in my head.

"On a plane, I wrote a song called "Woman with the tattooed hands" about the woman sitting next to me. I didn't know her, but she kept staring at me like she hated me. So I started to write the song next to her, hoping that she would look down and notice. She didn't." - Slug

Whole interview here: http://railroadhiphop.blogspot.com/2008/08/as-i-sat-down-in-front-of-my-computer.html

this song means to me that atmosphere is da shit

i love atmosphere like a fat kid loves cake. slug is not just a lyricist. hes a poet in a sense. he transcends rap as a genre. if he died he would be the kurt cobain of rap.