Tuesday, June 5, 2012

A MAN I KNOW AND MY TATTOO

The other day I ran into an acquaintance in the supermarket, and he appeared rather cold and unfriendly.  I've known him for a long time, and I was puzzled about the coolness, so I chalked it up to the fact that he was with his long-time girlfriend.  The man was a single father for many years after his wife left him, and he cared for his children admirably.  Both children are now married and on their own.  A few years ago, he began to go around with  a nice woman, but when he told me about her, he went to great pains to assure me that they were "just good friends".  He's a loyal Catholic fella, and he cannot marry again in the church unless he gets an annulment.  It doesn't matter at all to me if the two are friends or lovers.  In fact, I rather hope they are lovers; he deserves it after what his ex-wife did to him.

But I digress.  A few days after I saw the man, Grandpère ran into him, and he said, "Tom, let me ask you something.  Is that a tattoo on June's ankle?"  GP answered, "Yes."  It seems the man was somewhat in shock at the sight of my tattoo, which was why he seemed unfriendly.  All right, then.

I had the tattoo done after Hurricane Katrina, when I went a little crazy about my beloved city of New Orleans and its people following the devastating flood that resulted from the breach of the federal levee system.  GP and I visited relatives in Kansas City not long after, and my nephew and his wife, who adore New Orleans, had just had fleur-de-lis tattoos done.  The flower is one of the symbols of NO, referring to its French history.  I told them that for several years, I had wanted a small tattoo, but I'd never really known what design I wanted nor had nerve enough to actually do it.  A small fleur-de-lis seemed like a splendid idea, but still I hesitated.  My nephew and his wife urged me on, "Do it!  Do it!";  I asked GP what he thought, and he said the decision was all mine.  Sooo I had the tattoo done, and, several years later, put my fellow citizen in shock.

I assume that anyone who takes the trouble to read this silly, all-about-me post will be curious to see the tattoo, so the picture is below.  Please disregard the varicose veins.


21 comments:

  1. Grandpère ought to have said "You should see the other six".

    ReplyDelete
  2. If truth be told, I think GP was a little embarrassed by the question.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cheery couple they must have made.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cheery couple they must have made.

    Well....

    Tom is crazy in his own way, which is not exactly my way of crazy, and we sometimes embarrass each other.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brava, Mimi. I think the fleur de lis is an important message even for us of whatever generation they call us. And it also says volumes to all those whodat folks in your neck of the wood.

    Meanwhile I am still trying to figure out what kind of body art I want. I am just mainly chicken.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Grandmere --does this mean he was checking you out!!! --is he an ankle kind of guy!!! whooohoooo!!!! Grandpere --don't be embarrassed --be jealous!

    ReplyDelete
  7. chere Mimi
    i think our margaret's right. inspite of all his good Roman Catholic intentions i think your friend was 'checking you out' and probably quite conflicted about how much he was enjoying his.... research! lol

    i also think our margaret knows rather a lot about being checked out- lol- but then it probably happens to her all the time!!

    love you both, mes chères soeurs.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think it is great, so bother with him.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Margaret & David FTW.

    Lovely tat, Mimi. [Despite what the Saints . . . well, I'll talk no more football. ;-/]

    ReplyDelete
  10. I remember a former seminar mate at a party at the end of semester showing us the Presbyterian Church logo tattood in a bosomly location. She too was a grandmother. One should never understimate the ladies. I pondered a tat for a while but have decided it is not going to happen. Then again, I sometimes surprise myself.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Muthah, the folks around here know what the fleur-de-lis is about. You should do it...the tat.

    C'mon peeps, we're not living in the 1890s. It's OK for a man to look at a woman's ankle. Plus, GP is mostly not the jealous type. Plus, the man is probably 20 years younger.

    I found it strange that the gentleman was shocked pretty much speechless and did not look me in the eye, but I didn't see him look at my ankle. He was busy looking at the packaged meat.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for the kind words about my little flower. I share the colors with the Saints football team, who wear the emblem on their helmets, but that was entirely accidental.

    Paul, I would not want a tat with the TEC logo, although one on the bosom would be a good joke and conversation piece, if I were the type to show cleavage. Really, I don't have much to cleave.

    ReplyDelete
  13. If I had a big bosom, maybe I would get a tattoo across it that said "The Episcopal Church welcomes you!"

    Or perhaps, "God loves everybody!"

    But since I don't have a big bosom, I shall refrain.

    I really like your fleur-de-lis, Mimi. It has probably driven more gentlemen than you realize to stare intently at packaged foods.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I have three fleur-de-lis on a black cap (no tattoos yet), which I once told the Presiding Bishop stood for the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. I'm a fan of all three. New Orleans too.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Mary Clara, what fun!

    Thank you. The tattoo has faded a bit, but not much, which is the price for having it in an exposed spot. I confess that I forget it's there until someone exclaims, "You have a tattoo!" or in a situation like the one described above.

    Ormonde, should I get two more tattoos or just vary my explanation of the meaning of my one according to my mood at the moment?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Given the racy picture, shouldn't this post be labeled NSFW?

    ReplyDelete
  17. KJ, I hope you don't get fired for clicking on the post with the racy picture of AN ANKLE WITH A TATTOO. Maybe the boss will cut you slack because you're such a nice boy.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Lucky you. You can look at anything you want. Me too. Retired.

    ReplyDelete
  19. At least you don't have to deal with people saying "think how awful it's going to look in sixty years!".

    ReplyDelete

Anonymous commenters, please sign a name, any name, to distinguish one anonymous commenter from another. Thank you.