Skin Scribbed

We all wonder how we got our tattoos. What they mean and who chose them. Why they started to fade and why they started to appear.

A choice for tattoos is a thing for the past. We don't choose what we have, where we get them, or their meanings. They're just, there I guess. It's not like everyone wants them. They fade, sometimes. Depends who you are. Whether the meanings right. Whether you work it out. It's rare for people to have them fade, but then again who would have thought they'd just appear?

It's not like the old days. Where they were drawn using only needle and ink. They're just there. Painless, practical. Sometimes not wanted.

The tattoos tell a story of us. Apart from, when you're writing the book of your life. You usually hold the pen. Metaphorically of course. For years people just want to know. Will we ever know? I joined a team of scientists to log the details. Find pigments in blood? People in the night? Brain movement? Possibly ancestors. But nothing. What could it be? Supernatural? Or am I just being ridiculous?

The tattoos are a mere book, scripted on to the cover. No blurb and no title. No words. Just the pictures and the possibility of working it out. It's like the tattoos flood through you, they read your mind, weave it, breathe it. Then crash to the surface, showing you what they know. Like Lily pads, surfaced, but most definitely rooted below... Where from? We have no idea. When I was younger, I had this hypothesis. That they were Lily pads, and that they were rooted at the brain. When you worked it out, it triggered a pull and the pigments and pictures retrieved to the brain. To recollect for the new image. The new chapter. The new... You?

Tattoos used to be something creative. Original... But then again, people said you couldn't get jobs or be accepted with them. Now they're just there; to think people would categorise someone for being themselves and now they're just hypocrites. Not intentionally of course.

What tattoo do you think you'd stem?

Tattoos were a work of art, a way to be individual. But then again now we're the same... Yet again. Maybe we're just destined to be the same. Maybe they want us to be the same, but who?

Maybe it's us? Following the new trends, wearing the new trainers. We don't live on a farm of a planet and be put in herds. We have free reign.

And you, yes you, know that you don't take it.