8/9/09-3 interactions

“That’s some clean ink.” African-American male, late teens, street outside my building.
Me: “Thank you.”

“What’s that design?” (gesturing to branding). Hispanic male in video store, late teens/early 20’s:
Me: “It’s a dragonfly.”*
M: “How’d you do it? White ink? No ink?”
Me: “Actually, it’s not a tattoo. It’s a branding. It was done with iron plates.”
“That must’ve really hurt.”
“It was sore for a few days afterwards, but the brand was really quick so it didn’t hurt a lot.”
“Damn, that’s insane.” M. resumes flirting with clerk.

“How many tattoos do you have?” Asian female video store clerk, 20, (when customer leaves).
Me: “Hard to really say, because some of them have been added on to and some touched up and covered over. But the simple answer is somewhere in the 20’s.”
“Wow, I really like them. I want this tribal one on my back. I have a picture of it on my phone (shows me tribal orchid) but I don’t know where on my back. I’m also thinking of angel wings on my back, but I want to lose some weight first.” We discuss tattoo size, placement, and planning for several minutes, and then I ask if she has any movie recommendations. As I’m looking for a movie, we talk about Will Farrell and Lollapallooza.

* (actually, it’s the first two rungs on a ladder of transmigration, but over the years I’ve discovered it’s much easier to say “dragonfly”).