Welcome back to work, little campers! I know that most of you are less than thrilled to be back in your offices or cubicles, staring at a computer and listening to the inane chatter of co-workers.
Or am I just projecting my own dissatisfying work history onto you?
Whatever. I am here to give you cheer! I am here to buck you up! I am here to make you glad you have a job and are not like the guy A. saw at the fair!
The Great New York State Fair is a splendid place for tattoo viewing. And I'm not talking small, tasteful tattoos that can be easily covered up should the tattooed one ever decide to try getting ahead in life by securing meaningful employment. No, these are the tattoos that cover significant expanses of exposed skin. The tattoos that indicate this person is giving a big middle finger to The Man and declaring his or her intention to never work in an office environment. A. saw just about the best one ever. Sadly, I did not see this gem, but A. described it in detail.
The tattoo was located high up on the side of this guy's neck, right under his jaw. A spot where it could never be covered up by a collar, should this dude ever decide to wear a collar, which is, I think, highly unlikely. It was a pretty rough tattoo--not exactly a prison tat done with a ball point pen, but not exactly highly professional, either. The image was an outline of a razor blade, and the words inked into the middle of the blade?
"Mama tried."*
Indeed.
* In case you are not a Merle Haggard fan, here are the lyrics to the referenced song.
When I first saw the title of your post this morning I thought, "Now those are two words I would never expect to see in the same sentence: 'Fair' and 'tidbit'."
ReplyDeleteThe thing that struck me about the people-watching at the fair this year was the obesity. I think there must have been an average 30 pound weight gain since last year and a lot of it was being carried by young people. It's really frightening when you consider that the rate in New York isn't increasing as quickly as in other parts of the country.
WOW. That's pretty much all I can say about that.
ReplyDeleteYikes! You really wonder what he was thinking, don't you? Yesterday I saw a young woman, probably 20, 21, with a large tattoo across her whole chest. It was a large heart, then under that some kind of lacy line that almost looked like a necklace. I couldn't make out the specific details, because I was at least 30 feet away from her, but, yeah, it was THAT BIG.
ReplyDeleteWhy does that make me sad?
ReplyDeleteHmm.
ReplyDeleteI love that song. The Randy Travis version the most.
I would not, however, add that to my tattoo collection. I prefer that all of mine can easily be covered up.
Just found your blog. I am so excited to see a Merle Haggard reference AND a Monty Python reference so close together. Thank you!!
ReplyDelete