If even this formerly tropical kid feels this way about the insane heat, it is no surprise that the natives are complaining even more. Many of the homes in this part of the world even lack air conditioning, which then means that people--used to temperatures in the 40s and 50s have to figure out ways in which they can survive consecutive days of triple-digit highs.
Which is why there are more and more of the legs and arms and upper-bodies fully exposed. It also means that I get to see tattoos all over.
It is almost as if every adult is inked. Rare is an adult who is not. The other day I ran into a neighbor, who was happy to engage in trump trashing talk with me. I noticed ink on her left arm. Joy.
"Is that new?"
"I got that for my 80th birthday," she replied.
While there are no definitive census data on the tattoed states of America, surveys indicate that perhaps up to 40 percent of the adults in this country have at least one tiny bit of a tattoo. In the land of Puritans who not too long ago did not even allow their girls to pierce their ears!
A few weeks ago, at a routine health check at the doctor's office (I am healthy as a horse, thank you!) he commented about a noticeable keloid and some old scars from my childhood days. "You don't scar well, my friend. Be careful if are thinking of tattoos."
My doctor has no idea what a wimp I am. No, make that a wuss! I hate pain and discomfort, and I ain't going to let anybody jab me over and over. "To create a tattoo, the artist punctures the skin with dye-filled needles at a rate of up to 3,000 times per minute." Ouch, ouch, ouch!!!
The nerd in me got curious when the doctor made that comment. He was glad to share some of the tattoo misfire horror stories. "One patient ended up with bad keloids that made the tattoo look like some kind of a 3D art."
At least that patient lives on with a 3D artwork on his body, unlike an unfortunate "31-year-old man from Texas died after contracting flesh-eating bacteria through a new leg tattoo while swimming in the Gulf of Mexico."
An even ironical twist to the story:
The man had gotten the tattoo on his calf of an illustration of a cross and hands in prayer with the words "Jesus is my life" written in cursive.
2 comments:
I simply cannot understand why anybody would want to get a tattoo. It looks awful and frequently its inane - witness the growing fad of getting something tattooed in Chinese. Yuk !
By the way , I presume the weather chart is some Indian city masquerading as Eugene OR or else there is another Eugene in Oran Algeria :):)
I am with you--I don't understand it. But, this is so typical of various kinds of diversity all around us. People think and behave differently from us, and we are often unable to understand how the others think ...
Yes, it is hot here, my friend. Hotter than hell. In contrast to a normal of 84, temp is forecast to reach as high as 109!!! :(
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