5. We were late in reaching her job

I was surprised when one day Carol asked me to help negotiate with a Tattoo Artist. Carol had had a tattoo done above her ankle in China. She asked this Artist in Burgess Road to extend it. The new one had been performed by a young woman, an apprentice. She had not worked under sterile conditions, she hadn’t even washed her hands. The wounds had become infected. I was rather concerned to hear that Carol had allowed the apprentice to continue despite seeing the lack of hygienic operating conditions. Carol had then opened a case against the Tattoo Artists for malpractice, using a no-win-no-fee lawyer. The lawyers could not agree or compromise, the case dragged on, eventually she had to drop her claim because her time in the UK was drawing to a close. She was left to pay all the legal fees incurred when she withdrew her case.

Personally, I do not like tattoos of any description. I think they spoil the pristine beauty of the delicate skin on which they are needled. However, the history of female tattoos goes back to the time of Olive Oatman. In 1858 she became the first tattooed, white woman in the USA. Her family had been killed by Yavapais Indians, on a trip West in the eighteen-fifties. As an orphan, she was adopted and raised by Mohave Indians, who gave her a traditional tribal tattoo. When she was ransomed back, at the age of nineteen, she became a celebrity.

Later Carol asked me to accompany her to a different Tattoo Artist where she successfully had the original tattoo extended to cover the area where the infected skin on her lower leg had scarred her. This Artist had premises opposite the new flat she had moved into, above the Chinese takeaway shop where she worked part-time.

One afternoon the traffic on our usual route back to her flat had become badly congested as we had been held up leaving Winchester on a visit to one of her tutors. We were late in reaching her job. Carol offered to pay the toll to allow me to cross the Itchen Toll Bridge to get her back as quickly as possible. In this way I managed to get her to work only a few minutes late, rather than a half-hour or more. Back at work she kindly bought me one of my favourite Chinese dishes, roast duck in orange sauce, as a thank-you for taking her to visit her tutor. Her boss at the Chinese takeaway provided her with a free meal before her shift began in the late afternoon.