rhythma - sean michael imler

Music for the heart, mind, and spirit...

Rhythma Blog

Rob’s Tattoo

I was in the house I grew up in with my Mom and step monster, Rob. We were in the living room near the piano going thru boxes of some sort and we were all getting along alright although I had some misgivings. Rob wasn’t wearing a shirt and I noticed that he had a really unusual tattoo on him but I didn’t want to look too closely because the strange feeling I had about the situation.

We got done going thru the boxes and my Mom left the room. I walked over and sat on the couch. Rob took off the rest of his clothes and wrapped up his lower half with some sort of sarong and started walking over toward me. I watched him more intently now and noticed that the tattoo appeared to start on his back and it was a geographical map of a city. All over his back were large glass beads that had been placed into cuts in his skin that had healed over with a hole to reveal the glass bead inside. I was really astounded.

When he sat down near me, I asked him about the tattoo. He showed me the from of it and I noticed the name “Elvis” on it, and I realized that part of the city layout was a cemetery in Memphis, TN. I asked him if the tattoo was Memphis and he replied that it was taken from a very old map “before the Brazilians arrived.” I really didn’t know what he meant by that but he showed me how the tattoo wrapped around onto his stomach into a large open scroll with a lot of writing. I started reading it but unfortunately don’t remember what it said anymore than it was some sort of historical perspective on the period.

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