After the Dragon
by Trevor Howard

Fish had more tattoos
than anybody I ever knew,
and what made it really
interesting was that he
didn’t mind talking about
them at all. He liked people
who liked his tattoos. He
kept saying that we were
going to have to go up to
the D to get me one, but he
warned me that once you get
the first you have to be
planning the next one so
that you wouldn’t leave them
unbalanced. I said that I
couldn’t decide what to get.
I said that a maple leaf
might not be all that bad.
Fish called me a wimp and
said that if I was going to
get something as stupid as
that he wasn’t going to go
up there with me. So I was
off the hook for a little
while until he asked me
again and I muttered something
about an eagle. “Jesus,” he
said, “first it’s a goddamn
maple leaf. Now it’s an
eagle.” He was particular
about tattoos. “What about
a snake,” he said,” snakes
are always good… Or a
dragon…” Fish was really
proud of his dragon tattoo.
It was a genuine Lyle Tuttle
tattoo. He had gotten it in
San Francisco after proving
his sincerity to Mr. Tuttle
by showing him his collection
and telling him that he’d come
all the way from Chicago for
the chance to be tattooed by
Lyle Tuttle. Fish told me that
Lyle Tuttle was the biggest name
there was in the tattoo world.
Peter Fonda had a Lyle Tuttle
tattoo. After the dragon, so
did Fish.