Tattoo Man

This morning I walked down past the Harper city pool and what to my wandering eyes should appear but a man that was tattooed all over his body. He was wearing one of those little French bathing suits that barely covered the parts that needed covering. I don't reckon there was a part of his body that hadn't been under the needle. His head was kept shaved and there was an image of a brain right on top. It made a person wonder if he was marked up even under his skimpy little outfit. Frank Lee Person, an old fellow that has lived here all his life, has never been one to hold back his tongue with regard to what he's thinking about. He was down there swimming his laps when he came up out of the water and saw tattoo man walking up to the diving board.

Frank Lee yelled out, "Man, you can't get in the water with all that stuff all over your body."

"Ain't no law say I can't," said the stranger.

Frank Lee asked the pool supervisor to intervene and the fellow said he didn't think he could get involved for fear that tossing the tattoo man out would probably result in his having to touch him and he just wasn't prepared for that.

Frank Lee addressed the tattoo man again. "Man, I don't know how you can walk around looking like that."

"You don't understand," he responded. "Without my styling I would feel plumb naked."

All I can say is I had one little tattoo placed on my upper back when I left home for the Korean War. It had a rose and underneath that the word BETHEL, my first wife's name. I still got it. There were two reasons for that markup on my body. One, Bethel was my first love. And two, I was drunk when I got it.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle