Tuesday, December 2, 2014

A perfect late summer day

It was so nice, sunny and not too hot to run, but hot enough to sit outside. The dogs and I jogged for 75 minutes, then we hung out in the backyard for awhile.

And then I went to work and saw not one but two despicable tattoos.  One guy just had a swastika and some other minor stuff around it (a shabby tattoo altogether), but the other guy had this really well-done almost full sleeve of demons and flames surrounding a racist old-timey depiction of a black man, another swastika, and apparently some KKK symbol thrown in--I've just looked this up and it doesn't seem familiar, but I was too disturbed by the main scene.  The thing is, though, it was obviously a skilled, and likely expensive, tattoo...and just so so so wrong. It made me feel queasy.

It really threw me for a loop--I've seen loads of tattoos, including a bunch on old biker guys by the looks of it, including tattooed earrings, fingers, etc--I've seen so many tattoos that I've sort of stopped looking at them, I guess, and maybe a swastika or two has slipped by...but to suddenly see my first two in the day was shocking enough without the sickening grandeur of the sleeve.  Where the fuck am I?

Yeah, in the South, albeit in a region with a lot of Northerners and not much open display of racism...the biggest example is perhaps a lingering relic: most white people are on one side of town, while the other side has predominantly black citizens, but things are gradually mixing up.  However, I know that it's but a short drive to innumerable small towns and villages where not many people come or go, and some people are just not welcome.  I'll be wondering what lies beneath clothing, at any rate.  :(