Tattoo Removal

A friend knew this plastic surgeon.
It cost ten times as much to get it off.
State of the art dermabrasion:  lasers.

Sterile room, blue sheets, bright light.
Bentadine, yellow on the gauze,
red on my antiseptic skin.
A needle injected the anesthetic ~
burning, swelling, numbing
while they all put on safety glasses.

The colored pigment is heated
until it explodes.  You can hear it.
Watch it burst.  The laser has no color,
removes only colored cells.

Ceiling with little holes, casual talk,
the odor of burning flesh.
Whoever did this tattoo
went really deep, 
through the epidermis
and into the fatty layer.
You~re going to have a nasty scar,
Are you sure I should finish?

I~m always sure.

Two drops of tattooed blood 
remain on my puckered wrist 
where the skin froze,
too painful to move
as it healed.  



copyright 1994 kathy jo kramer