My Tattoo Guy:

I have a "tattoo guy".

This realization hit me hard, when an acquaintance asked me who did my latest tattoo, and I said "I'll introduce you to my guy."

Let's put this in perspective, here.

I go to the same coffee place at least four times a week - I know no one there, and they barely recognize me.  I haven't gone to the same barber twice in a row, pretty much ever.  I go to the same book store every week, and the same music place, but I wouldn't say any of the workers there are "my" people.  And to them, I'm just the guy who makes weird requests and then buys way too many books on Roman Military History.

I've got a thing for people that kill elephants while wearing funny hats.

So why do I have a tattoo guy?  He's given me one tattoo, and he'll be doing my next.  So why is he "my guy"?   I see him less often than I see, say, my general practitioner.  Who is most definitely not "my guy", although the last time I saw him, he did stick his finger up my butt, so maybe I owe him dinner or something.

The point is, in the last decade or so, we've entered a tattoo culture.  A lot of people have them, but it's a new cultural tradition, and people are still feeling out the boundaries.  And so, we do what our monkey-brains have programmed us to do - communicate with fellow monkeybrains.  And this is why, when friends ask me, I tell them I "have a guy".

Because I'm cool like that.