Introducing the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Nathaniel Paul who has been releasing his songs over the past five years covering a plethora of universally resonant themes. His latest track ‘The Girl with No Tattoo’ touches on one of the most relatable facets of our human existence – love. Specifically, this track is about the romantic admiration that Paul has for a woman who isn’t adorned with any body ink.
More than a message against tattooing as a culture or art form, Paul has a personal and in some ways spiritual preference for leaving his skin as a blank canvas:
“I have never had a tattoo and don’t plan on getting one. I can’t imagine something permanent on my skin as I continue to grow and evolve as a person. Altering your body has become so prolific, so I think it’s really important to be confident in who you are. You are beautiful – just by simply being you – tattoo or not. You don’t have to change or alter yourself just so people will like you”
This sentiment of self-love is wrapped up in a suitably breezy track built around downbeat drums, whomping bass line, warm acoustic guitar strums and spectral, layered synths. Over this dreamy backdrop, Paul‘s gentle vocal floats in with the catchy refrain, “she’s a girl with no tattoo.” Around the 1:18 mark there’s a subtle shift in tempo as the percussion picks up and Paul‘s lyrics become slightly more direct as he expresses how he “laid it on the line” for this special someone.
After a strutting electric guitar briefly enters and exits, there’s another moment of vulnerability from Nathaniel Paul around the 2:00 minute mark. Here most of the instrumentation is stripped back, just leaving a light synth key melody and the artist’s soft voice. In this way, the song is a sonic embodiment of what it means to be yourself, sometimes less is more.
Whether you’re tattooed, pierced, have dyed hair, painted nails or nothing at all; as long as you’re authentically yourself, that’s all that matters.
You can also listen to ‘The Girl with No Tattoo’ in our Shades of Pop playlist.
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