Love Tat

[Wildcard]

Hi Dale,
Nice take on bad ideas in general with a mention of the 'tramp stamp'. I'll give it a shot:

Thinking that he was the one,
—although now a long time gone—
you had “Tommy Ray” splayed, --nice internal rhyme
close over the entrance to the “Y”. --Haven't heard it called that in a while. Brought a smile.

A green metallic blob gone painfully wrong
on the inside of the thigh.

“It could be a dragon?” --maybe bring this up into the previous stanza OR just work it into the last stanza. Something like:

on the inside of the thigh-
it could be a dragon, I guess.

--just a thought

Then for kicks, at the waist, in back, --do you need a comma [i]and the em dash?
—you wonder why you had him scrawl—
“Big Mac Attack” --Why 'Big Mac' if his name was Ray? Or is it two different guys' names on her?
…with an arrow pointing down?

Hurt less at the time—but more now --favorite line. Seems to get a little more serious for the nonce
from the lack of clear thought—
because you’d blown a hundred beforehand,
so that you, and your three closest friends
could get extremely high!
All you could do later was shake your head,
and silently ask yourself,
“why, god damn it, why?”
…while at the end of stiff arms you squeezed
your hands into tiny balls of regret. --another great line imo. 'Tiny balls of regret' couldn't be better

v-- I see what you're doing with the 'dialogue-ish' verse here, but I'm not sure it's working because I don't get a feel of who is asking the questions . . .
You’re a Big Girl ain’t cha?
Never let ‘em see you cry,
never let ‘em know that you could die,
from self-inflicted embarrassment,
at this overt display of your best,
better judgement.
They laugh at you and point,
holding their sides and starting to cry.
You pretend to try and smile,
while remembering how you --last four lines of this stanza are amazingly poignant. I feel empathy even in this tongue-in-cheek criticism
stupidly waved goodbye
to the last bit of your innocence:
thinking yourself so very clever!

Love is fleeting; tattoos are forever! --I think you could do without this line. The one before it makes a better closer. Without this line you have: cheeky -> funny -> more serious -> serious. I think that's a good progression. It may be your intent to have a punchline, but I think it's better without it.

Just my thoughts. Thanks for sharing.