The Man in the Mirror
Jake, 21
I had a dream last night that i thought was kind of interesting. I was hanging out with my roommate and some other people when i noticed that I had a large tattoo on my right arm. I took off my shirt and looked in the mirror and noticed that it was all over my neck, upper back, and shoulder as well. I remember thinking to myself that I liked the way it looked but couldn't remember getting it. My roommate told me that we were very drunk one night and decided to get tattoos. This puzzled me because this sort of tattoo would have taken weeks to finish, and no matter how much i drink I never forget anything. I believe the tattoo was a large sea-green dragon (a chinese, eastern dragon, I remember) wrapped around a red rose. When i woke up I considered getting one just like it.
Mr Hagen's Reply; Tattoos -or- The Mirror Stage of Child Development
While there are numerous points of entry into your dream, the most obvious one, is the mirror found in your dream. In depth-psychology (study of dreams and the unconscious) the mirror phase of psychological development of the child was postulated by Jacques Lacan. The mirror stage provides the foundation for us to develop, structure and sublimate our body image, symbolic thought and imagination. You see the tattoo (a topic we could also discuss) in your dream mirror which is your creative imagination at work and when you wake up you want to make it happen in reality. From a popular music perspective you seem to be doing what Michael Jackson called for in his song The Man in the Mirror.