Un día Canutito came back de la escuela and put his libros down en la mesa. He grabbed una manzana from a saco que Grama Cuca kept en el pantry and bit into it. As he chomped away on his apple he looked at Grama Cuca who was busy planchando su ropa on the rickety, old ironing board. He approached her and he said: "Uh, grama, what you think de la idea of me getting un tattoo?"

Grama Cuca dropped the iron del puro rebato. "Why in the world would you want to desfigurarte by getting un tattoo, m'hijo?" she asked, looking straight at him.

"Mi amigo Oscar told me de que he was going to agarrar uno, possibly un tiger o un skull on his arm y yo pensé que it might be real cool if I got one también," Canutito replied.

"Mi amigo Lolo had one," said Grampo Caralampio, coming into the house con una abrazada de leña." As he deposited his armload of wood in the box by the stove he continued: "Él tenía un tattoo right on his forearm. Era una mujer empelota."

"Uh, I don't think que I would get una naked lady en mi brazo," Canutito muttered. "I just thought que maybe I would get una Lady of Guadalupe."

"Saints are not something que you tattoo en un cuerpo," Grama Cuca said sharply. "Son algo que you have you treat con respecto!"

"I remember," said Grampo Caralampio as he finished stacking the leña and brushing off los palitos from his sweater, "que when I was young, it was real fashionable to agarrar un tattoo of an araña between the thumb and forefinger."

"¿Por qué era fashionable to get a spider, grampo?" Canutito asked him.

"The cool dudes de mi tiempo belonged to a 'spider gang' and parte de la iniciación was to get a tattoo de la araña. They would then wear their pants low-slung con el fundillo halfway to the back of the knees y el cabello all slicked down con Parrot Pomade y un package of Lucky Strike cigarettes en la sleeve of their teeshirts."

"They must have looked bien interesantes, grampo," the little boy said.

"Yes they were, m'hijo," Grampo Caralampio said. "Hasta las girls would join los spider gangs en esos días. They would tease their hair bien alto and hide razor blades in it."

"Uh, grampo," Canutito interrupted him, "¿Por qué did the muchachas put razor blades into their cabello?"

"So that when they got into fights con las otras muchachas and if they grabbed them by the hair, they would get all cut up," Grampo Caralampio replied. "Do you know a Mana Cleotilde, m'hijo?" Grampo Caralampio asked Canutito after a few seconds.

"Do you mean that viejita who is always praying in church, grampo?" he asked.

"Sí, that one," grampo said. "Do you see como she is all católica now? Pus, cuando she was young, she used to belong a los spider gangs."

"Really, grampo?" Canutito asked, todo impressed.

"Sí, señor," Grampo Caralampio replied. "She got un spider tattoo pero instead of getting it en su mano she got it on her left breast."

"Right en la chichi, grampo?" asked Canutito, touching his chest.

"Sí," grampo replied. "It looked real cool por munchos años pero as she got older, el tattoo began to sag lower and lower. Ahora do you know where it is? Ahora Mana Cleotilde's tattoo is hanging by her knees since she is all guanga."

Canutito snickered.

Just as Grampo Caralampio was finishing his story, Grama Cuca, who had left the room, came back in con un pedazo de Bazooka bubble gum. It was wrapped en un fake tattoo of a kitty cat.

"Toma, m'hijo," grama said. "This is a tattoo you can have." Canutito licked his arm and pressed the gatito onto it. He was todo contento con su tattoo...



¿Le gustaría compartir sus propias anécdotas o comentar con Torres sobre esta columna? Envíele un correo electrónico a lartor@unm.edu