Tattoos

Okay, so this morning I was in criminal court, so as usual I arrived a few minutes early and was allowed to enter when the deputy opened the doors, before the criminal defendants and general public. Who says being an attorney has no perks? When I walked into the courtroom the three courtroom clerks and the court reporter were already there chatting about the day ahead.
Each time I appear in this particular courtroom I am reminded that it is attached to the county jail and will include appearances by individuals currently serving time or in jail awaiting trial. Almost as soon as I entered the courtroom I became aware that the clerks, and reporter, were talking about the "in-custodies", those currently in jail, who would be appearing in court this morning.

This morning’s topic was tattoos. Specifically facial tattoos as worn by different inmates who had been in court earlier this week as well as some who would be in court today. Let me first say that I do not have any tattoos, that’s a personal decision, to date I have not found anything that I would want to have permanently affixed to my body. At the same time I have no objection if someone else wants to have tattoos, I’ve seen some that are quite beautiful, while others make me ask why would you do that to yourself.

Here’s an example. There used to be a teller at the local branch of our bank, she was in her fifties and I guess you could say pleasantly plump. She was a nice, friendly person, but it took awhile to learn that because the first thing you noticed was the four inch tall tattoo of the cartoon character "Wally Gator" on her left forearm. The tattoo wasn’t offensive, but it was out of place on a bank teller. The second week the teller worked in that branch I noticed that she was earing an ace bandage on her left forearm, covering "Wally Gator". Like I say it wasn’t offensive, I’m sure there was even a cute story about how and why she ended up with "Wally Gator" on her forearm but it was obvious that the bank didn’t think it was appropriate in their place of business.

So, back to court this morning. The clerks continued talking about how off-putting some of the tattoos really were. One clerk mentioned an inmate with tattoos on his face. There was a consensus that none of them liked the facial tattoos. Then one of the clerks said she hoped that the one man wasn’t on today’s calendar, his tattoos just creeped her out. The other clerks didn’t seem to know who she was talking about so then she had to describe the tattoos. The man has shaved his head almost completely bald and on the back of his head he has a tattoo of his face. The only hair on his head is cut so that the tattoo has a mustache. I almost laughed out loud when I heard this description. All of the clerks made faces and agreed that they didn’t want to see this man in the courtroom today. It reminded me of a man who worked in the grocery store down the street from our house where we did most of our shopping. He also shaved his head, completely, and on the back of his head he had two, very feminine, very made up eyes tattooed. So when his back was to you it looked like he was watching you. It was more than a little unnerving.