Tattoo’s conception lies in the feelings of anxiety, frustration, and dejection that are commonly associated with burnout. When lacking the inspiration to compose or practice, I’ve found that my only way out of the slump is to improvise music. The result of this process was the early stages of Tattoo. For nearly a year, I sat with the idea of the piece in my head, occasionally notating, playing through, and tweaking parts of it. As I began to add preparations to the vibraphone, I found that the character of the piece reminded me of tattoo guns. I decided to lean into this narrative and include as many sources of buzzing as possible such as strings of metal beads, aluminum foil, and sympathetic vibrations from snare drums. When I notated the finalized version of the piece, I made sure to keep the music open-ended, so its improvised nature stayed intact. I’ve treated Tattoo as a living thing: constantly evolving as I went back to work on it, and continuing to evolve as it gets performed.