Looking around the room Frank thought about how many times he’d been in this position. He was sitting in the chair of a tattoo shop somewhere in the Midwest, this trip had been slightly spur of the minute. Frank and Gerard had been drinking coffee and talking about their relationship; the secret but not so secret relationship they currently shared. Thinking back Frank knew it was impulsive and probably stupid and reckless of him but he wanted to prove to Gerard that he was serious about ‘them’.

“I should get a new tattoo” Frank said staring absently into his empty coffee cup; “like a secret tattoo just for me and you, you know to remind me of how much I love you”.

Gerard looked over at his lover, Frank did tend to sporadically get tattooed so his statement wasn’t surprising. “What would you get? A big heart with ‘I love Gerard’ in?”. He knew he shouldn’t encourage Frank but it was so easy to wind up his friend . Frank looked put out by Gerard’s response “well obviously not, how corny and clichéd is that! I was thinking something more tasteful”.

That’s how he ended up in his current position; sitting in this damn chair waiting for the artist.

Frank wasn’t new to this, he had more tattoos than he cared to count but he knew what he wanted and wasn‘t going to let a little thing like pain stand in his way. Frank winced and laughed at almost everything to cover up the fact he was in pain; he knew it was going to be worth it. He loved Gerard and wanted to show him just how much.

A few hours after the idea had struck him Frank looked at his newly tattooed hands, he was happy with the end result. The design was simple and elegant. It displayed how he felt perfectly.

He held his hands out so Gerard could see the final result. On each hand Frank now had two words that when put together would remind him of his lover and he knew as he leaned over to kiss Gerard that everyday he would feel like a “Hopeless Romantic”.

bluejbird