Tatuaje / Ednodio Quintero

Tattoo

When her fiancé came back from the sea, they got married. On his trip to the eastern islands the husband had carefully learned the art of the tattoo. On the very night of the wedding, and to his wife’s surprise, he put his abilities to use: armed with needles, Chinese ink and food coloring he drew on the woman’s belly a beautiful, enigmatic and sharpened dagger.

The couple’s happiness was intense, and as usually happens in these cases: brief. A strange illness revived in the man’s body, contracted on the muddy islands of the East. And one afternoon, facing the sea, the sailor began the longed-for trip to eternity.

In the solitude of her room, the woman let loose her wails, and occasionally, as though finding some consolation there, she would caress her belly adorned with the precious dagger.

The pain was intense, and also brief. The other one, a terra firma man, started to circle her. She, at first elusive and cautious, eventually gave ground. They agreed on a date; and on the set night she waited for him naked in the room’s darkness. And in the clamor of combat, the lover, strong and impetuous, fell dead on her, cut through by the dagger.




{ Ednodio Quintero, Ceremonias, Barcelona, España: Editorial Candaya, 2013 }