Monday 13 July 2009

tattoos

Opposite me is a 30 something man, clean shaven, wearing designer sports wear, dripping silver chains and a deaths head or similar ring on every finger (and for all I know, every toe) the striking thing about him though is the permanently inked artwork all over the visable parts of his body and the implants in his forehead.
He has really gone all out with the tatts, he has a heart tattooed on his head, not a heart shape mind you, this is ( as far as my limited knowledge of anatomy is aware) a real human heart. Down either side of his neck is a thick black spiderweb spiraling down to his shoulders complete with a funnelweb rearing up ready to strike.
His forehead has a series of really big lumps under the skin giving him the appearance of having a really bad case of acne.
He has some smaller lumps where his eyebrows should be and they are tattooed over with little blue circles.
When he smiles ( which doesn't look like it happens often) his teeth are all filed to a point. His hands and arms are so inked up I can't see any skin.
He has accessorised with a small female companion who's foray into the world of body art hasn't reached the heights of her beloved as yet but I think she can't be far behind.
Now, all of us conservative little officeworkers are sitting there on the train minding our own business when these two stomp downstairs and sit facing us all. We all look up (as you do when someone makes a big noise) to be confronted with two pairs of hostile eyes staring out of these freak's faces. To the last man we all quickly averted our eyes and got back to quietly doing what we all do. I have my impeniterable shades on and so feel quite safe in pretending to be asleep whilst checking these two out thouroughly (hence my ability to descibe them reasonably well) and let me tell you, they are facinating.
Tatt man is so agressive and really paranoid about people staring at him (go figure) every time he catches anyone looking at him or the accessory he points at them and mimicks firing a gun at them. He also gave one poor man a heart attack as he was moving his leg away from tatt man, as he looked up (expecting a smile of thanks no doubt) tatt man said, in an incredibly menacing voice " what the f@!/' are you staring at" poor bugger nearly wet himself and got off 2 stops later.
What on earth these two rejects expected I'm not sure, surely they get stared at wherever they go? You can't help it. Tatt man's behaviour is so over the top for someone who must attract both positive and negative attention. Why do that to yourself if you don't like people looking at you? And let's face it, if it's a blue you're looking for a peak hour train isn't the place you are going to find a worthy opponant.
Accessory is trying to calm him down but he seems to be pumped up on adrenaline or testoserone or steroids or all three.
Most people within a two seat radius have moved. There is the odd person who, like me, trusts that he is all bluster and that he won't start ripping out seats and throwing them out of the windows (and probably secretly hoping that he will, how cool would that be). It's interesting to watch him work himself up actually. He is deliberately taking offense at people just being in his presence. The more he acts up the more people stare at him and the more he acts up. Imagine living with a powder keg like that. What he doesn't realise is that no one even sees the tattoos now, they can only see the idiot underneath them.