Tattoo Design

O.K.  ~

                   Here's a Tattoo design I did up for my old friend  -  J.T. Templeton the 3rd. He was blowing through town recently when I bumped into him.  Seems he's around for a bit in between jobs.  Said he was coming back from Alaska - "Up there things is different . . . doin some caged bear fightin. . . . nothin but a knife and your balls to pull you through !!!" I was out blow gun hunting some spring hares. He was meditating, nude, on a fallen log in the back of the Tiny Marsh when I came across him. Needless to say - in two seconds I was on my back in four inches of slime with a Bowie knife pressed across my juggler - then he recognized me - " Hey man. Whats up ?" Fucking hit men are so cool !!!
                       Well I got up and we caught up - and after racing a couple of old mustangs out to Cedar point and back, ( that ending in a ball of flame and a young french girls heart broken (( he just looks at women and they go  C R A Z Y !!! )) we sat down and that's where the idea of the tat came up. "I had a job I wuz on fur a group of 'investors' " He said. " - the work took me to the Philippines. Anyway, after a whole bunch of shit and tangle I ended up in a drain pipe filled with scorpions - and I had to chew my way out !!!" I just looked at him. "So - I thought I'd get this little guy to remind me" He lit his cigarette by shooting the end of it with a . 32 caliber Derringer he whipped from his boot - " I wanted it to remind me that life is precious, you know - to take in the beauty." He exhaled. " You know what I mean ?" I just smiled and nodded and went and grabbed my sketch book.
                        We bounced some ideas back and forth over a couple of sit downs - in public spaces, and some secret meetings elsewhere. We came up with this. The Scorpion in perspective over Mars. He likes Mars - birth planet - Zodiac. Planet of war - symbolic / mythological. Red - cool color. So I did up the semi-final designs, we proofed them -  and then went ahead with coloring.
                        In conclusion : It was very nice to see him again, and he was very happy and excited when I presented the finished design to him. He was so happy in fact he told me he even disarmed the plasma mines he had hid in the bush beside my house - WHAT ??? "Nothing personal you know, just hav'ta cover all the bases." God damned contract mercenary Intel - agents . . . . you just never know !!!