Scratching The Surface

Laura is another old friend from Richmond. One of my all time favorite moments with Laura took place on the day that an old friend died. I was in a state of shock, couldn’t quite see straight, and was in no mood to talk. She had recently finished a dissertation on the fandom of Buffy (the Vampire Slayer). She took me into her home, sat me in front of the television, and said, “I have just the thing for you,” and turned on the first season on Buffy. It was the perfect thing for that particular moment.

“It was my 34th birthday, and I had always wanted a tattoo, but I didn’t know what to get. I wanted something symbolic, but not something temporarily symbolic. But there are very few things that are permanently symbolic. So I thought, “Fuck it, I’m just going to go to the tattoo parlor and see what they have.” And they had this flower, but it was in black and white and had leaves on it. So I said, “Ok, but I want color, can you add purple and yellow? And I like tribal things.”

So they added tribal squiggles. We thought it was looking a bit flat, and so the tattoo artist just started adding color; I had no idea what she was doing. And I thought, “Ok, this is just part of the tattoo thing, I’m just going to let her do what she is doing right now. I remember thinking to myself, “I can’t believe that I am doing this because I am not usually a risk taking person.” She ended up adding the green and the blue, and I have never not been happy with it.

The piercing that I have, I can always take those out. But with this tattoo, I am never going to be naked again. And that feels kind of cool. I will always have adornment on me no matter what I do. I can’t lose my adornment.

But my mom. My mom wept when she saw it. But my dad said,

“I think it’s kinda pretty.”