The first bonsai cat I tattooed
Inspired by an Early Internet Hoax
I can vividly remember a crisp autumn day in the early 2000’s, sitting in school and listening to the students around me gossip about something called Bonsai Kittens. Apparently, it was possible to shape kittens using glass jars as moulds, much like the way bonsai trees are carefully shaped. I couldn’t believe such a horrifying thing could be real. I was heartbroken, but my curiosity peaked. The whispers quickly turned into rumors, spreading like wildfire throughout the school.
That afternoon, I ran home with my friend and sister, and the three of us couldn’t stop talking about it. Could it really be true? Barely able to contain my concern, but desperate to find out the truth, our young detective minds began processing this strange new information.
We managed to log on to our gigantic, prehistoric home computer, all three of us staring wide-eyed at the screen as we typed in the website address. Slowly, the page loaded section by section, revealing photographs of kittens seemingly confined inside clear glass jars. At first, we were horrified but as more images and information appeared, we finally realized…thankfully…that it was all a hoax.
We could breathe again.
With our childhood crisis resolved and we soon returned to our normal activities, which, at the time, included taking turns playing The Sims for the next three hours.
Years have passed, I no longer play the sims with my friends yet the memory of Bonsai Kittens has never really left me.
The early internet felt like the Wild West, a strange, largely unregulated landscape filled with bizarre hoaxes, rumors, urban legends, and real websites that perhaps should never have existed. So much of that strange digital world has now disappeared or been forgotten. I wanted to revisit that feeling through motifs inspired by this particular moment in time; the fear, curiosity, innocence, and absurdity of discovering something online before we had learned how to question everything we saw.
The bonsai cat motif lives today as a reminder of the past and a story for the future, or if you just like cats and plants that is also good enough reason to adopt one. —Rebecca Sauvé
Japanese maple bonsai cat
Ginkgo bonsai cat
Inspirational cats pt.1
They can fit anywhere, if you’re brave enough even the ribs :)
Monstera bonsai cat
Sleepy boy pt.1
Sleepy boy pt.2
Inspirational cats pt.2
