Secrets and rage can get under the skin in an unsettling short story by Ivy Pochoda, award-winning author of Sing Her Down and These Women.
Swan is a tattoo artist new to a community in the California desert when a mourning desert dweller named Kurt requests a tribute tattoo to his dead wife. Swan agrees, but the locals warn her: don't indulge Kurt in his tragic memories. No wonder. As Kurt returns for more tattoos, the truth about his wife's death begins to emerge in the ink. And it isn't pretty.
***
Swan rolls down the car window, sticks out her arm, driving like her Dad used to when she was little.
***
(Amazon Original Stories, 19 March 2024, e-book, 45 pages, borrowed from AmazonKindle via Prime Reading)
***
***
I enjoyed Jackrabbit Skin a lot. I've enjoyed other work by the author. I liked the premise of this story, dark secrets revealed via tattoos, original and interesting. Swan is a great character, fierce, feisty and trying to do her best. She feels sorry for Kurt and is in a bit of a dilemma when she tries to make sense of what the tattoos are telling her. I enjoyed this a lot and would recommend it.
