Check this out for weirdness: my tattoo is so totally excellent that it has landed me a mention in a major newspaper. For real. This is because, about two weeks ago, E and I drove up to Atlanta to attend the opening of a group art show in which I had some drawings. It was inexplicably freezing that night and I had packed badly, not bringing tights to go with my skirt, not bringing a heavy enough coat, etc, but at least I had a sort of cute outfit on.

So I was standing around, looking at things and guzzling my free white wine, and a woman comes up to me and says, “Hi, I’m so-and-so from the AJC, and I love your outfit!” I was confused. I did not know what the AJC was, except that it was the same acronym as a company I once worked for years ago. Also she spoke quite quickly, and sometimes my brain doesn’t process things very quickly.

(Does anybody else have this problem??? God, this is embarassing. When I used to work for a fairly highstrung corporate president, I’d get so stressed out when he started barking a sting of orders at me. I would have to grab a pad and scribble frantically, knowing that there was NO WAY I could ever comprehend and remember everything later. Even if later was, like, twenty seconds later, when he walked out of the room. Sometimes I think I am pretty smart, and other times I think I might be slightly brain damaged.)

Anyway. She repeated her name and that she wrote a Nightlife column for the Atlanta paper. She repeated that she liked my outfit and handed me her card. Suddenly I realized what was going on, and that it was very very important that I charm her. I mean…the press! At a show in which I had drawings! So I really tried to work it. She was very nice and asked me lots of questions about myself, writing everything down, and had me spell my name and everything. At one point I gestured toward the wall on which my drawings hung, and it was then that she saw my wrist tattoo. She got very excited and had me tell her about it, what it meant and everything. I thought we were still talking about my art but by then she was way more interested in the tattoo thing. Which is fine.

After E and I got back to Savannah, I checked the Atlanta paper every few days to see whether my name had shown up in her column, and lo and behold, a few days ago it did! Here is the bit about me:

“Meanwhile, we were taken by the art [I] was displaying - on herself. S.B.’s not much into tats, but these were the sweetest blue roses you ever saw. (Wonder if we could get one printed on some notecards?)”

HOLY CRAP, you guys. It was my name and a glowing review of my tattoo! How excellent is that??

(At first I was bummed that none of the actual art was mentioned anywhere in the column, and then it hit me that this was a nightlife/culture/gossip column, and that I just needed to chill out.)

Besides, a woman’s tattoo receiving a positive review in a Southern newspaper is probably unheard of! It’s like I have broken the sound barrier or something.