Matched pair
I ran an errand last week and flew to Los Angeles to get a tattoo that is actually two tattoos. No, they don’t have any meaning, just vibes. Found the guy’s tattoo page linked on a Discord, instantly knew I must have it, emailed, told him what I wanted, booked a time, booked a flight, booked a hotel. Everything went smoothly. The session itself took four and a half hours. Dude had a light touch. It is my only color tattoo, my largest tattoo, my most prominent tattoo, and more expensive than all of my other tattoos combined.
Then I threw on some sunscreen & Aquaphor and walked into the crowds of Los Angeles, and the comments began from literally everyone. Over 30 people have commented on the tattoo so far, and as of this writing it has been only two days. Everyone loves it.
The first comment came from a security guard at an art museum. He correctly pegged who did the tattoo, and gasped. “I’ve never seen one in person before,” he said. Okay, so I got a recognizably that-guy tattoo from that guy.
The next comment came from someone who remarked, unprompted, that one of my favorite musicians also has a tattoo from that guy. Okay. Deep breath. I guess I’ll keep an eye out when I see them live? Okay.
Multiple people have noticed one arm, and then almost fell over when I point out the other arm. Why don’t more people have matched pairs of tattoos? People get tattoos on arms. They have two arms. Everybody’s arms always seem so compositionally imbalanced. Mine strive for this. Everything feels planned. My earliest arm tattoo is from 2007. We play the long game in this house.
I don’t know what to do with the comments. I don’t know what to do with feeling noticed. I’ve gone four decades walking through the world mostly undetected. People seldom pay attention to what I’m wearing, or care about what I’m doing. This has all been thrown into the sun now that I have this tattoo. I cannot hide. I am wearing something shocking to everyone. I say “thanks, I got it yesterday,” and their jaws drop. “It looks good!” “Thank you!” I hope it ages as well as I’m about to.