Tattooed Memories

Day 1: She walked in panache, dressed skimpily, sat in elegance and radiated the I-am-the-one glow. The tanned skin, coloured and air blown hair and an overall uniqueness shone in her, but none of these caught my eyes. What left me staring was the tattoos she had. I stole a glance every now and then without her notice and grabbed some time to take a clear look at them. I say ‘them’ and I mean ‘them’. Because it wasn’t a single one that she had….there were many. The first day was a smile-day, as in we exchanged brief smiles to each other.

Day 2: The second day came with a few surprises for me. The lady in panache had a little more parts exposed that day, and new tattoos peeped from all those places. There were cats, flowers, wings of angels, crown of a queen and some more that I was sure would be there but were yet to be revealed. Once again my eyes kept staring at those one at a time. The designs marveled me. I continued my task of stealing glances of those. I wondered about the skillful hands that did those on her as well as her boldness of getting such big tattoos done. My mind brooded more on the pain she must have endured while getting it done.

Day 3: My mind was wandering off in that room until the feast for my eyes walked in. Wooo oooh….! Today’s her attire left me feeling awkward for a while. She had worn a low V-neck top. Her cleavage was clearly exposed and there it was …yet another tattoo. This one was really beautiful. It was a group of birds flying somewhere high. A group of black birds with long and fully spread wings. Before I could gather up more information on that delicate piece of work, I saw her returning my gaze.  And oops I realized bashfully where I was staring at. I turned away and from the corner of my eyes I saw her smiling.

Day 4: The piece of wonder had her leggings pulled up into three –fourths today. What more to say I again found a new one staring blankly at me. My first glance deceived me and left me thinking that it was an anklet of black beads. A closer look defined clearly that it was a permanent anklet painted onto her bare skin. Hmm... Nice idea, I thought silently to myself and continued the work I was doing until then.

Day 5: I waited for long…the door was flung open as usual but she didn’t come. I returned to the room disappointed at the hope of seeing something new today. I missed her lots, and those tattoos more.

Day 6: When I was about to give up the hope of seeing her, she walked in the door again, as always without smile or any other emotion. She lifted her hands to brush her hair, and yes, today also my eyes were destined to be feasted. The new one was the symbol of a gear and there was something written too. But today I thought for a little longer, the tattoo was newly made as I had never seen it on her hands before.

I couldn’t hold on any longer, I had to ask my question. I walked to her and asked her permission to sit beside her. She agreed with a smile that I rarely got to see. Her arms were resting on the table and once more I was staring at the newly made tattoo.

“Can I touch it?” I asked uncertainly.

“Yeah sure.” She said, amused with the curiosity in my eyes.

I gently ran my fingers on them, just making a feather-touch afraid to hurt her skin. The tattoo was swelled and stood a little high from the normal surface of the skin. It felt rough and the skin was disturbed in some places.

“You don’t need to be that gentle.” She said, interrupting the chain of thoughts going on inside me.

“Doesn’t it pain?” I asked with my wide eyes filled with a lot of questions and curiosity.

“Not anymore, it is a part of me now.” She answered, looking at me in the eye.

“How many of them do you have?” there I went with yet another question, hoping to get an answer.

“Haha…almost 15 maybe, I have lost count now and I hardly keep track of it.” She said.

Right then I looked at my index finger where I had got a pin prick and had screamed like a warrior shot with a bullet.

“It must have pained a lot right?” after asking this I was pretty much sure that she would chase me away, maybe I should have just not asked more.

“Yes it did, but just the first few times. Then gradually the threshold of your body increases and you no more feel anything.” She answered me adequately.

The answer seeped into me and I looked at her. For the first time in almost a week I was actually looking at her and not the tattoos she had. Her eyes were black, lips were nothing close to pink and had chubby cheeks…wasn’t cute though. She looked good as herself. I decided not to ask much and just left the seat smiling at her.

When I returned to where I sat, I had a thought within me. Unconsciously she had hidden a message in the answer she gave me. It was indeed a beautiful thought worth thinking on. It was not about how many tattoos to get on yourself or how to get them, it was something rather simple. The part where she had spoken about the threshold of human endurance, where you cease feeling things. As in tattoos it is same in life. The more pain you give someone the more they will become armored. And at a point feelings stop existing and there are only marks left. For people who haven’t felt the real pain yet, even pin pricks are too much but for those accustomed to it even blows mean nothing.

A tattoo taught me this simple reality in life, being armored for more, falling and getting up to face more and living life boldly, respecting all the challenges, hitches and failures that pave way to a greater success and a better life.

Lady in panache- I owe you this realization, you may not have intended to make me aware of something but I had to learn it from you, someone somewhere had decided.

“Right lessons come at right times you just need to keep your eyes wide open”- Paulo Coelho had said once and I know now why he said that.