She's 59 and her body tells stories of a time when she was in love with art
The woman pays for her groceries and when she hands over the money, her tattoos flash under the fluorescent lights. She can tell the cashier is staring at her, his dark eyes judging her every move, but she's used to the gazes.
Her first tattoo is faded now, but she can still remember.
The time she took sketching the design, a mixture of keys entangled in a jungle of flowers that will be drawn on her wrist. How excited she was, skipping her way to the tattoo parlor, admiring the sharp cheekbones and spiky blond hair of the boy who recreated her sketch on a piece of paper before filling the needles with ink.
She still remembers the sharp sting, a pain she's become immune to over the years. But her first time, she had to hold the hand of her boyfriend, a boy named Riku who she dumped two weeks later.
That day, she not only got her first tattoo, but the blond boy's number.
And the sun shined and kissed her forehead
At 18 the girl had gotten 5 more tattoos, to the point where people began to notice and stare.
On a particular summer day, sun beaming, turning her blonde hair white. She walked through the park with a sketchbook in hand. The bench she sat on was broken down, and despite her being slim, it eventually collapsed under her weight.
As she lay in the grass, laughing as the sun shone bright in her eyes, she decided to add to her collection.
That afternoon, the boy, who had since become her friend, tattooed the sun on her forehead.
To her this was a sign of protection.
The girl was walking down an empty street waiting for something to catch her eyes, when she was mugged.
The man who held a gun to her throat couldn't have been over 30, with menacing brown eyes and a light complexion, his long nose mountainous in the ski mask. He demanded her wallet and after taking the $30 with a disappointed sigh, he walked away.
The girl wasn't scared easily. But guns terrified her, and that day she vowed to never go alone down the streets.
That night, her best friend tattooed a shield on her throat and became her fellow explorer.
She lent her body to an artist because he promised to mold it to perfection
When men claiming to be modeling coaches stop you on the street, saying you're beautiful, it's best not to actually use the phone number on the business card he hands you.
The girl was whisked off to a slew of beauticians promising to mold her to perfections. She was yanked, pulled, shoved into microscopic dresses. But when they saw all of her tattoos, she was pushed out, whispers following behind her, telling her she was ugly, hideous, ruining her body.
She ran to the tattoo parlor, collapsing into the arms of the blond boy, who kissed her forehead and told her she was perfect already.
And in case she forgot, he wrote the word ono the inside of her arm, and she held his hand, smiling, as they walked out the door.
Perfect shades of blue mixed with her pale complexion.
The say she turned 25, the blond boy whisked her away to see the world. He used the money from the painting her had just sold (entitled "The Girl With The Tattoos") to bring her to Italy, Spain, Greece. Two weeks later, he took her to the Tunnel of Love in Ukraine, a place that looked like a painting in itself, and knelt in the grass with a ring in his hand.
On their wedding day, they tattooed rings onto each other, swirls of blue that went up to their elbows.
The woman tears her eyes back to the cashier, who stands holding out her credit card expectantly. She smiles at the man, apologizes, and then walks away, pushing her cart to the car waiting outside the store. The woman grabs her bags and slides into the passenger seat, kissing the man beside her's cheek. He smiles.
"We're still going, right?" she asks.
"Of course!" he grins.
And the man and woman stride hand in hand into the park, smiling, inviting the stares.
Because their bodies have become their own work of art.
~Fin~
This was inspired by the poem "To the Lady on the A Train with the Tattoos", by unknown. The entire poem is in this story, in the bold, with only one word changed. (props to the person who finds it!) Also, the Tunnel of Love is a real place, and one of the most beautiful at that. I encourage you to google it.
Thank you all so much for reading! I've never done something in this fashion before, so your reviews and favorites would be adored. 3
~Audrey