Twice this week, on different bus routes, I have seen men with facial tattoos.
The first looked to be at least in his forties, thin to the point of gauntness & with a terrible pallor. He also sported a fine array of piercings – ear, nose & eyebrow. Totally self-contained, defiant in his difference, it was probably not just the years which had raddled him.
The second man was also gaunt & pallid, but with clean & well cut hair. He looked younger than the first man, but still at least a decade older than his conventionally blonde girlfriend.
Are they real tattoos – injected under the skin in what must be an incredibly painful procedure – or some kind of homemade, or rather cell-made, prison technique, on the surface only. I cannot remember seeing this fashion anywhere else.
So imagine my surprise when I turn to the Times Playlist radio listings for Friday to see a picture of Mike Tyson, illustrating a program on the Discovery channel about his childhood passion for pigeons, with those same designs on his face. In his case though they do look like greasepaint, the lines far too broad to have been drawn with a needle.
Obviously I am completely out of touch with these modern fashion trends. Let us just hope that David Beckham does not take them up, temporarily or permanently, at least not until after The Wedding.
