The Tat Man

I did not see The Heckler today. It was too rainy for him. (Michelle, thanks for the conversation starter. If I was with someone and on a sugar/caffeine high, I might just do it.)

However, I did meet someone interesting. My co-worker and I had finished shooting train memorabilia for the story I'm producing about a local train depot's centennial celebration. We were in this cool building that might have been used to store coal or unload trains back in the day. The garage door was up and a guy walked by and peered in.

"What's this?" he asked.

"An art studio," I replied.

"You an artist?"

"No, we were shooting video."

"That's a switch."

Then the man noticed a photo of a wrestler on the wall. This art studio had an eclectic mix of images on the walls.

"That guy's a wrastler." Then he proceeded to mention when the WWF matches are on. "That guy has a tatoo like me."

I looked down at the back of the man's legs. One leg had a dollar sign.

"Put them together," the man said. His left leg had "EZ" on it.

"I have a tatoo too," I said. Feeling a little awnry, I revealed the temporary tatoo on my arm. It's badly fading now.

"Oh, that's cool. Those cars are still around." My tat features a blue VW bug.

Then, for some reason, I decided to give the guy a potato bump with my hand. A man who had caught up with him and didn't seem as odd was urging his friend not to be weird and also reminding him that the bus was loading. And that was that.

Truth is definitely stranger than fiction sometimes.