The Ocean is the Reaper's Mistress

Newport's Suicide Bridge, how the song of the sea is to be respected and how to defeat the Winter Blues.

Portland has a high rise arch bridge called the Vista Bridge. It connects the areas of King's Hill and Vista Ridge which are both in the Goose Hollow neighborhood. I lived in the Goose Hollow apartments during my college years. The Vista Bridge is known as Portland's suicide bridge and with good reason. The image above is the Yaquina Bridge, Newport's suicide bridge.

Death in Numbers

"Suicide Alley" is the term used to indicate the Western group of states that hold the highest suicide rates in the country. Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico, Idaho, Alaska and Oregon make up this regional epidemic, with Alaska being the highest.

Statistically, males are more than three times more likely to commit suicide than women. While the highest method of death is from a self inflicted gun shot wound, the next common methods include poisoning, hanging and falling. Although most people who commit suicide prefer to do so in their own home, the next most common chosen location is out in the middle of nature. Sick and pregnant animals have a similar habit of leaving their home to find a comfortable spot in the solitude of nature where they can allow their bodies to take its natural course. The coastline in particular holds the highest number of suicides in the state.

The Sirens Song

Do an experiment next time you're on the coast. Sit back, take a seat where you can see a range of coastline and watch the sun go down. Pay attention to how the number of visitors walking up and down the sandy beaches expand in number by the beginning of dusk. Take note of the slowing down of time itself. You will see it happen as the purple colors start to appear. Everyone walking, be it alone or hand in hand, will slowly come to a stop. No one will be looking inland. Everyone stands in utter stillness watching the ten minutes that the sun disappears. Even the animals. Just like an eclipse. I have seen it time and time again no matter what the season.

The ocean has a pull to it. It is hypnotic and mystifying. We ARE the water planet after all. Our chemical make up knows this. Maybe that is why the ocean calls us so strongly. It can be seductive in how comforting the rhythm distracts us from watching the road ahead of us while we are driving, pulling back when we swim right into an undertow or watching our next step ahead when hiking the jetties. I have also noticed that it calls us most when we are in need of guidance, emotionally heartbroken, terminally ill, experimenting with drugs and/or coming to terms with death, be it someone else's or our own. It is a place of reflection and peace, but in the same sense, it attracts death. Most of the people who come to live on the ocean don't plan on ever leaving. They come here to die.

A majority of the population you'll find in coastal towns are retirement communities, Curry County being the highest in the state. This plays a role in the statistics of the high death rate, even in suicides. Oregon offers Death with Dignity where you can seek aid in planning your own death through hospitals which is intended to offer mercy to those who are facing death on their own natural terms. Choosing how and when you die can offer comfort to many folks who are facing it with enough time to plan it out. Oregon has been very supportive of this, unlike many other states. This may be a factor in what puts Oregon on this list. Death with Dignity is not statistically accounted for as a suicide, but it's psychological acceptance and perspective may have something to do with it. There is a unnatural level of acceptance towards death along the coast of Oregon. Maybe because we see so much of it.

Tattooing Memorials in Small Towns

As an artist, you can expect that you will become a part of the funeral services. Countless times, I was the families first visit after the initial incident or immediately after the funeral.

Memorial tattoos are common no matter where in the world you tattoo. This is because tattoos are cathartic and in the event of the loss of a loved one, the one thing that the survivor wants most is to keep their loved one within them forever. It can be extremely healing and provide comfort to those where other outlets can not. But be prepared, in small towns, the emotional intensity of the session does not end when you finish the tattoo. When you go out to eat, collect groceries, try to relax with a drink after work to settle your mind... everyone around you will be grieving this loss. This is because in small towns, no one is allowed anonymity. We celebrate together, we evolve together and we grieve together.

Surviving the Winter Blues

This is an important subject for anyone living in a climate that creates isolation or hibernation through the winter. You will see many people use alcohol or drugs to cope with the loneliness. In small towns, there are less healthy outlets to utilize. Rather than a diversity of gyms, yoga groups and martial arts, we are lucky to have one or two small gyms. Newport only recently built a public swimming pool at its one recreation center. And just this month finally opened a gym where you can train jiu jitsu. There is a serious lack of sports in general. Our natural resources for exercise is hiking, kayaking and swimming through the mountains, forests and the coastlines. All of which are virtually eliminated once the winds pick up and the freezing rains.

Keep at least one gym 24 hours year round. Organize educational social gatherings every single night of the week that include all ages. Invest in an adult onesie collection and wear a different one in public at least once a week. Build an indoor park for dogs to come out and play too.

Support your local recreation center. We're lucky to have just one! Rather than heroine or meth, snort vitamin D* to help the body absorb calcium and phosphate. Every time you hear someone say something negative, say something positive. Watch more comedies. Share funny memes. Fart when someone hugs you. Keep a clown nose accessible for anyone who is caught crying, babies and senior citizens included. Wash it thoroughly between uses. Bring snacks to the local ambulance station, we're lucky to have them too! Be kind to one another. Hug people more often. For fucks sake, just keep smiling!

*Do not snort. May cause harm. Just swallow a vitamin like a normal person, silly.

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References

https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/DISEASESCONDITIONS/INJURYFATALITYDATA/Documents/NVDRS/Suicide%20in%20Oregon%202015%20report.pdf