21.Kyla and the Angry Tattoo

So, what should be the story of the night?

The large man who got in the car and told me he had been working 13 hours every day doing landscaping and that he was 46 and had already had five heart attacks and three strokes in his life and has 12 kids and 46 grandkids and his doctor told me his heart was only working at 5% so he had gone to church and asked people to pray for him and the next time he went to the doctor he was told his heart was at 105% and he could climb mountains now and this had given him renewed faith in God and he went and was re-baptized in the Pacific Ocean and despite that I was driving him to a late night “masseuse”, he thought this was ok because no one is hurt by this…?

Or how about the 34 year old old school punk rocker who looked like he was sixty and went on about the last punk festival he had seen, which was in Vegas on Fremont Street, and included bands like Rancid, Suicidal Tendencies, the Exploited, Agnostic Front, and more and that the hardcore skinheads tended to ruin it by getting into fights and how he used to be a SHARP, which is what the original message of punk rock was meant to be, and not to sound racist but he saw that Fremont Street had a lot of African Americans on it and he wondered what they thought of all the bald white guys walking the street in their wife beaters and suspenders and thought that they shouldn’t be judged by their worst members because punk is about rebellion but from oppressive authority but he knew cops who would let a skinhead fight go the distance and would only step in once one side was down and he understood why they wouldn’t want to get in the middle of it and as I dropped him off he asked if I wanted a beer because he had a backpack full of them that he stole from work because “fuck my work”….

Nah.

I think I will talk about the young lady I picked up who entered my car quite angry.

I asked her how she was, my customary greeting to most every passenger and she told me she had just been punched in the face. I said “What?!?” and offered to stop the car and go find the guy and have assault charges pressed. She said it was one of her best friends that did it. One of her “former” best friends.

She, let’s call her “Kyla”, went on a rant how they were all seniors now and about to graduate and all they still wanted to do was get drunk and be stupid. She was tired of it all. The reason her friend punched her was because she had made a comment about the tattoo her friend had gotten that afternoon.

Her friend was drunk and told the tattoo artist what she wanted, and “Kyla” tried to caution her as she was going to have that for the rest of her life. She told “Kyla” to mind her business and got the tattoo. The reason they had gone to the tattoo place was that it was “Kyla’s” birthday week and they were both going to get tats. But “Kyla” had designed hers earlier and it had meaning, while her friend just picked one at the tattoo place.

At the party, her friend told everyone “Kyla” had been such a drag all day long and a fight ensued between them that culminated in the friend, now former friend, punching her in the face.

“Kyla” then explained how important tattoos were because they are with you for life. She had once gotten a tattoo of her ex-boyfriend on her ass cheek and soon regretted it. And since she didn’t want to just cover it with a black square, she made a design to cover it that covered her ass cheek and went down her leg. She submitted this story to a tattoo magazine (I think it was called “Ink”?) for a contest and said she was currently in 10th place out of a few thousand because of the art and the story behind it.

“Kyla” elaborated further saying that when she got the ex’s name originally put in her ass, she was drunk and high, and the tattoo artist was another ex. You see, it’s ok for a person to get a tattoo in Texas if they are intoxicated. She figured he did it out of spite. She called him out on it, and he agreed to correct it however she wanted. And so, he was giving her a thousand dollar tattoo for free.

I dropped “Kyla” off at a bar (I believe I have mentioned “Dirtbags” in a previous post). She admitted that this was slightly hypocritical of her since she had been going off on her friends for not growing up and just partying, but she reminded me that it was her senior year and partying was in order.

As she got out, “Kyla” thanked me for the ride and showed me the part of the tattoo that came down the back of her leg. She was wearing short shorts, which seems to be the back to school outfit of most of the girls going to university, and it was clear to see the tat.

She then moved to unsnap her shorts if I wanted to see the complete tat and I politely declined. I told her that it was against company policy for me to look at a passenger’s personal assets.

Besides, there were a lot of people around and some guys might ask for a show, and she probably shouldn’t be giving shows to the guys at Dirtbag’s. She agreed and laughed.

In my head, I thought “crisis averted”.

“Kyla” smiled and said thank you again. I told her it was my pleasure and asked her to make good choices.

She then bounced towards the bar, in a much better mood than the one she was in when she first got into my car.