Tattoo by Lady Danika

Tattoo
by Danika Stonesoul



I said to him, "Let me mark you..."
... "Let me make you mine."

He looked up from kneeling,
Trembling -- already writhing in anticipation.
and nodded in the darkening gloom
the slatted light through the windows making
shadows against his cheekbones.

The tremor in his voice as he moaned
echoed with the buzz of the tattoo gun

And he took a shattered breath as I
marked his inner thigh
The exquisite needle against the taut skin
the rise of glistening wet beads
that we had to wipe away to see
the shimmering brittle graffiti
of narrow black letters

His eyes flickered down to my art
when it was finished
Perfect notes against the white
expansive line of thigh
He sobbed and I asked, "Why?"
"Is it the pain?"
"Or the permanence you cry for?"

He shook his head and whispered
"Neither." and pressed his head against my legs
And we rocked until finally he said,
"At your hand is where I ever wish to be,
By your touch, I am."