Go Mordecai!

This is my new tattoo.  I can't express how much I love it and how much it means to me!!  For those who don't know, this is a drawing of a scene from Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums.

The characters portrayed here are Richie Tenenbaum as a child and his pet hawk, Mordecai.  The portrait I just had tattooed was originally drawn by Eric Anderson, Wes' brother, who normally has some sort of artistic contribution to all of Wes' films.

In the movie, there is a point where Richie as an adult comes back to his childhood home and releases Mordecai for good.  To me, this represents being able to let go, even when that something or someone means so much to you.  You don't always want to do it, but ultimately it's necessary in order to move on.

This image of Richie as a child letting go of Mordecai has spoken to me for so long.  I feel as if it's him letting go of his innocence when Mordecai flys away, symbolically preparing Richie for the harshness of the world to come.  It's a melancholy translation, but that's what it means to me.  And at this point in my life, it means more to me than ever.

Towards the end of the film, after Mordecai has been gone for the majority of the movie, he returns to Richie out of the blue, his feathers having turned white from some traumatic experience he had been through.  Of course, this is just a movie, and rarely would anyone expect such a thing to happen in reality.  Stranger things have happened, but mostly they don't and shouldn't.

"Go, Mordecai!"