In the world of maritime lore and practice, tattoos were both commemorative and magical. Sailors frequently tattooed the words H-OL- D F-A-S-T onto the skin above each knuckle in the hopes of strengthening their grasp on the ship’s rigging. It gave sailors an edge at saving their own lives when the winds would howl and the ship tossed wildly on the waves, and they must hold fast or be thrown into the dark cold sea. This illustrated autoethnographic work will draw on the metaphor of the ship in transit, the slippery rigging, storied magic and the dangers of the chasm below, to interrogate the idea of the academy as literal and figurative home for transnational academics. In it, I will combine words and pictures to tell two stories of being. The piece concludes with problematizing the notion of “home” as a desirable construct in the context of the academy.

在海上知识和实践世界中，纹身既具有纪念意义又具有魔幻色彩。水手们经常在每个指关节上方的皮肤上刺上H-OL-D FAST字样，以期加强他们对船舶索具的掌握。当风吹啸而船在海浪上狂乱抛掷时，这使水手们挽救了自己的生命，他们必须紧紧抓住或抛入黑暗的寒冷海中。这项经过说明的民族志研究工作将借鉴在途船只的隐喻，滑溜的索具，传说中的魔法以及下面的深渊的危险，以质问该学院为跨国学者提供字面意义和象征意义的住所的想法。在其中，我将结合文字和图片来讲述两个存在的故事。