35
"Tattoos are like a reminder string on your finger"
"Taddy?"
Ianto looked up from his task and hummed in response, "yes love?"
Ianto had stepped out of the bathtub and was drying himself as Ton watched from the same bath, still soaking as he knew his lovely Taddy would get another towel and open it wide to hug him with it as he stepped out next.
"Why do you have a dragon by your ball-sack?"
Ianto took a moment to register and then looked down at the little red Welsh Dragon that was in his inner groin.
"Oh. This was for Gene" Ianto smiled "When he was dead. We all got one, his favourite thing. Mama Lisa had one too."
"A tattoo?"
"Yeah, some people get them for decoration but others get them as a reminder. Like a little memory on skin. Every time I looked down to piss I looked at it and remembered my big brother who always stood next to me when we were kids giggling as we pissed in the darkness of our parental's bathroom." Ianto smiled "He always called me Teddy and I always called him Puff."
"Puff?"
"The magic dragon who lived by the sea" Ianto laughed, "It was our secret thing. He used to sing it to me when I was scared of the storms. Our little thing. It gives me strength now, Puff right there where no one else can see, a piece of my big brother."
Ton considered and smiled as he understood "Like a talisman?"
"Exactly my lovely boy. None of you children have tattoos but I would support it if one came and said they wanted one. They are not always for others to see, not for their entertainment, rather the wearer's personal choice to have something with them forever."
Ton liked that.
If he ever got one it would be a teddy bear.
In a Great Coat.
Yeah.
Now … how can he get a picture of that tattoo on Tadda for his book?