2012 BFA Senior Thesis: Out of Many, Down to one
Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States nicknamed “old hickory” for his toughness and aggressive personality.
He was responsible for the Indian Removal Act that relocated Native American Tribes in the southeast to Oklahoma, supported slavery, and ironically was the first president to be attacked..... several times
The story goes: January 1835, Jackson was leaving through the East Portico of the Capitol after a funeral, an unemployed housepainter from England aimed a pistol at Jackson, which misfired. He then pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. Historians believe the humid weather contributed to the double misfiring. Lucky...
but his luck ran out when he got struck by a Naval Officer that he fired due to embezzlement.
Clearly he was a really charming guy, however Jackson did pay off the entire national debt, the only time in U.S. history that has been accomplished.
Here I use the ornament of the tattoo as a source of shame, applying it as punishment, branding him. By branding him with a symbol of native american culture, the tomahawk, I balance those histories in which have been previously separated.