Vendor Writing: My Tattoos

My Tattoos

BY WILLIAM B., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

When I was younger, I was forced out of my mom’s home by two of my brothers. One is dead now and the other one is my baby brother. One of them was drugging and the other one was a seven-day drinker. When my momma gave me my rent money back, I spent all of it on drugs so I found myself homeless. So I was on Dickerson Road at a tattoo shop and they asked if I wanted to stay there and help clean things for them.

After a while in that arrangement, I felt obligated to them and asked how I could show my appreciation for them for what they were doing for me. And the owner of the shop said out of the blue, “Why don’t you let us tattoo your head?”

These angel wings on the top of my head used to be horns. And people were

scared of me. So, eventually I saved up $200 to change them into angel wings. So, you could say I bought my way into heaven!

The next tattoo was the three stars because I believe in my country. I wasn’t able to serve my country but I love my country. So I got three stars to represent the country and the state of Tennessee.

If anyone knows me they know I’m all the time asking questions. It’s just part of my nature I guess, so I got the question mark.

On the back of my head I have a skeleton angel with bloodshot eyes. I’ve done died once in real life and came back. That’s what the skeleton with bloodshot eyes means. The eyes mean two different things. I can sense people when they are behind me. It’s an ESP thing. I’m usually right because it’s saved me twice. Once in Salem, Oregon, I sensed a guy was behind me with a knife when I was leaving the pool hall, and when he came too close I already had my knife out and he ran. The second time was when I was in Portland, Oregon, playing my music on the street, and on the way home I was followed again. This time the guy had a big stick. I sensed that and turned around with my knife again, and I don’t know what I could have done against that big stick, but I wasn’t gonna let anyone take my money.

I’ve got two sets of wings on the back of my head too. One set means I died and got sent back. I was sent back by some of my old family that passed away. When I saw them they were at the age they would be now, not they age they were when they passed away. My dad said, “The Lord’s not ready for you.”

I also got a tattoo on my chest in 1968 that was put in with three needles and toilet paper ink. It didn’t stay. It was a key to change my heart. Because I was in love at the time. It did its job.

This one on my arm is from 1968. It’s another patriotic thing for me. It used to be in color but I scraped the color out myself. I’m very tough. I might put it back into color but I can leave well enough alone.

I also used to have knuckle tattoos. One said “love” and one said “hate,” but I scraped those out with a tin can because I’m not scared of anything. I’m not scared of dying because if I’m going anywhere I know the Lord’s ready for me.