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Five Points, Vol. 14 No. 3

Fall 2012

From A. E. Stallings, “It is ultimately a brash act to write down your words for posterity. You have to have a healthy ego, I think, to dare to create.”

Sample Content

James Rioux
Tattoos, Death Metal, Shaving, and Other Ironies

“Go I.”
—M.R.

I still rub at it now and again, as if it might smudge on my wrist, as if I’ve yet so fully to accept its epidermal permanence. I must admit I’m pleased it’s not ornamental. God knows, I’ve had to work hard enough to establish and kind of masculine assertiveness; it doesn’t hurt to have rudimentary letters inked into my skin—letters just strange enough to possibly suggest some drunken ritual or mishap, or, better yet, a stint of long-term incarceration.

But it’s rarely exposed to others, as the inside of the wrist is mostly turned toward one’s own body, allowing even wrist-cutters a convenient anonymity. And then there’s always the long sleeve shirt. When I hide it it’s to avoid the awkward questions, or, more specifically, the potentially long and sometimes emotionally tedious answers. Go I? What does that mean?

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