I saw her across the crowded pub floor. To be honest I saw the tattoo first. It was striking, as was she. I had to say something.
Emboldened by Guinness, pint in hand I made stepped gingerly through the crowd and stood beside her, waiting until she finished talking to her friends before I started to speak. So I stood and waited.
"Hello" I said, eventually. "That's a great tattoo."
"Erm, thanks." she said, no doubt wondering who I was and what I wanted.
"I spotted it across the room and couldn't take my eyes off it." I said, master of that type of uncomfortable conversation. "Have you had it long?"
"A while." She said, no doubt hoping that was it, looking at her friends in hope of rescue.
"Well" I said, "It's brilliant. Can I take a photo? Would you mind?"
"Erm, I suppose so" she said, seeing as I already had the camera ready to go. She stood and I snapped.
"Thanks" I said, putting the camera away. "I'm impressed to see it as a tattoo. I love the design."
"Oh really?" she said, sounding as if she'd heard this particular line a hundred times before, "So you know it? I had it done from The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. You like the poem?"
A challenge? Bailemos!
"Ah" says I, "Really? There was me thinking it was inspired by Don Quixote by de Cervantes Saavedra. That's where I know it from."
"Oh?" she said.
"Yes" I said. "Funny. I carry the same one around on my keyring."
Not a bad end to the conversation at all, at all. Pity it's also the end to this post - I honestly don't know how to finish it. Any ideas?
You should have publicly berated her for not knowing the correct source of her tattoo. A simple tapping on your pint glass with a spoon would have gotten the pubs attention then you could have proceeded to destroy this woman in the full gaze of friends, family and peers.
ReplyDeleteOnce you had crushed her confidence she would have been putty in your hands.
I should write a dating book.
That would be my pet peeve when it comes to tattoos...People not doing enough research in advance of getting the damn thing inked.Grrrrrr :D
ReplyDeleteAll colour cordinated!
ReplyDeleteI never had the courage to get a Tattoo, will wrinkles do if I redraw the lines in a felt tip? ;)
You know, I took it to mean that she was testing me, as in "oh yeah, you think you know the origin, eh?"
ReplyDelete@Offthemeatrack - thanks for the comment and suggestion. Tempting, but eh, err, emm, yeah. Let me know when that book comes out!
@Mar - I know what you mean, but if you go to get something as unique as that inked, it's doubtful you don't know. For all I know she could be right!
@Grannymar - good morning my dear. You don't have wrinkles! One or three laughter lines maybe, but you're either using very good concealer or my eyesight is so very, very poor...
What a great tattoo. Nice to see something different every once in awhile.
ReplyDeleteOooh I immediately saw the Don, too...
ReplyDeleteYuck, Poe. Anyone having a tattoo from The Raven needs their heads examined.
I think it's rather poor of her to have the convo hanging in such a way after you approached so openly.
Anyway, how about finishing off by asking people what tattoos they have?
there's no such thing as coincidence.
ReplyDeleteNot being an expert on the Raven and from what little I recall any "action", that there is, takes place in and around the narrators bedroom. So my question to the girl would have been, what was Don doing in Poe's bedroom.....? I always suspected the Poe was mad but hanging around with a befuddled Spanish knight is taking it to far. I say no Poe, bad boy, step away from the nutty knight and go back to your rather dull conversation with the feathered chick.
ReplyDeleteWith your clothes crumpled on the floor at the end of a bed with the Henna from her tattoo well and truely destroying the crisp clean sheets of the double bed of the penthouse at the morgan hotel you booked into and bailed back to after a passionate movie like middle of the street embrace and its raining.
ReplyDeleteEither that or paying the 125 euro soiling charge after she spews on the way back in a taxi and leaves you forking the bill and then doesn't put out.
I think i read too much mills and boon
Great post
And we both lived happily ever after.
ReplyDeleteThe End.
:)