Memento is a film about Leonard’s search for the enigmatic ‘John G’ – the man who killed his wife. The challenge for Leonard (played by Mike from Neighbours) is that he suffers from short-term memory loss. This throws a spanner in the works of his detectoring. He gets around this inconvenience with a collection of Polaroid photographs and a mass of tattoos that remind him of important snippets of information he has gleaned over the years. Of course, him constantly having to make sense of all this information anew is part of where the film’s twists and turns come from.
I have to say that I am quite taken with the idea of having really important things that I need to remember tattooed on myself. I’m aware of my own short-term memory loss that sees me forgetting who I really am, and playing the wrong game. If it was up to me, I’d go full-Memento and cover myself with black ink – FACT 1: You are a Son of God FACT 2: Remember that God thinks everyone you meet was worth the life of Jesus and so on. Ruth won’t let me do this, and that’s fair enough. It’s one of many reasons why she’s good to have around. It’s a shame though, as my middle-aged weight gain is beginning to show, so I’ve got plenty of room on my slowly-expanding canvas for some really important truths. So, I have to think of other less drastic ways to remember important things, because I really don’t want to forget.
Interestingly though, I think that there are such things as hidden tattoos, but more on that next week…
