i guess that's one solution

a while ago i had a patient who had this giant tattoo on his arm that says:
"I
LOVE
VERA"
in a 5-year old's hand-writing/block letters. he got it 40 years ago or so, and vera was his first love at age 18. they lived together in boston. after a year she left him. he married someone else. but the tattoo remains.

so throughout the appointment, dunno if i should have done this, but i was trying to think of ways to change the tattoo.
like,
"....maybe you can tattoo ALOE before the VERA..."
"...maybe you can tattoo VERDAD..." ('truth' in spanish)

anyway, my assistant is a little more sensitive and just encouraged him, saying "that's a good way to remember your first love of your youth." (in her head she was prolly thinking "the folly of your youth")

so today another patient comes in and there's a tattoo of 73 on his wrist and underneath there is a big rectangular green blob. so i asked him to tell me the story of his tattoo. 73 is something about when he went to vietnam with the army. and the blob - "that used to be a girl's name! but i had to block it out for the new wife."

:D