The Top 40

A tattoo is a permanent reminder of a temporary emotion.

I was walking behind a diversity in the mall and she had the words "Fuck them all" tattooed at the nape of her neck. She was walking in the same direction as I was and the mall was crowded enough that I couldn't pass her so I had plenty of time to ponder what could have led to her making such a permanently unwise decision. I'm still baffled.

Potsie: ...or a long binge.

"I was walking behind a diversity in the mall and she had the words "Fuck them all" tattooed at the nape of her neck."

Now I wonder where she works, because that can't be present in Corporate America.

Years ago, I showed up at an orientation for the Walt Disney Company College Program. The recruiter, with a smile and wit she could have only learned from Disney's best, made it dead clear that tattoos are not allowed among employees. "If you have one," she said, "you'd do best to cover it up. You don't want to tarnish your image... or our own family-friendly one." I knew then that a whole lot of those attending with tattoos would not dare apply for anything there... and I wouldn't recommend it either.

I don't have tattoos, for religious reasons.

My husband is a Merchant Marine: he could have chosen to cover his whole body in those, or even had one on his arm as a reminder of his days at sea. But he has chosen not to do it. He and just about all of his Mariner peers in Corporate America would not dare show one of those.

More subtext: low self-esteem; poor impulse control.

Time will be the great leveler of all the skin artwork. I'm 66 and once in a while I look at myself naked in the mirror. Yikes. Sure am glad I don't have any tats, things are bad enough as it is. By the time the tatoo'd get to a nursing home the attendants will be trying, scrub 'em off 'cause they look like shit stains. haw haw.

The cartoon is a guy. On a woman the subtext would be, "Ask me about my daddy issues".