Tattoo and shame

It happened about two weeks ago when I travelled by underground in Berlin. It was a hot summer day. People wore light clothing so that I could see very clearly that someone sitting opposite to me had a tattoo on his shoulder. The man sitting together obviously with his girlfriend, arm in arm, had many very colourful and artificial painted tattoos on his shoulder and his neck. I began to look more intensely to those tattoos and tried to find out what they symbolised, and what the symbols were saying to me.

When it happened just on a sudden that this man addressed me obviously quite aggressive with the words: “Why are you staring at me? What are you looking for?” Meanwhile his girl-friend tried to cover her own tattoo. You can imagine how astonished I was about this reaction. I felt very friendly looking, I felt in a good mood admiring those paintings on the body. And I felt very interested in trying to decrypt the shown symbols.

Of course I right away realized the slightly aggressive tone in the man’s voice. Of course I felt rejected ………….