Johnny Gossamer

I dreamed I had gotten a third tattoo. I don't remember what it was, just that in the dream I kept reminding myself not to forget that now I had three tattoos, not two tattoos. I think the third tattoo was on my back in the area between my neck and shoulder, a place I was not likely to see it.

I read in today's Globe that tattooing was illegal in Massachusetts when I got my first tattoo (in DC), an aspect of banned in Boston that had completely passed me by. I was legally a resident here in the late 90s, because of the way insurance and college financing work (because my parents moved here, I was counted as a resident for voting and car registration and tuition even though I was an adult who lived somewhere else), so I guess I was sticking it to the man even more than I initially thought. (I didn't actually live here until 2010.)

I've been watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and reading Ninth House, and my day job is US news, so I've been bouncing from one story of sinister elite cabals with terrifying dark rituals to another. The overlap didn't really hit me until this evening, but it's probably part of why I'm nervy and drained. It became the theme (or a theme) of the sci-horror novelette I just finished as well, because it was what was in front of me.

I do still have a bit of escapism - after a month of, you guessed it, sinister elite evil cabal with terrifying dark ritual storyline, Genshin Impact is in the middle of its fictional lunar new year festival, and it's a relief. Coins and silly jokes and paper lanterns.