[ WP ] You run a tattoo parlor . Every couple of weeks the same customer comes in , always requesting the same tattoo - an additional tally mark on an ever-growing cluster of tally marks .

He comes in every other so. Sometimes with a grin on his face, other times quiet and brooding. This must've been the fortieth or fiftieth time I'd seen him. 
 
 This time he says nothing. Quiet and brooding today then. He sits down in the chair across from mine, the one he always sits in, unrolls his sleeve, and extends his arm. 
 
 I do n't say anything either. 
 
 I take his arm in my hand and begin to add another tally. He never winces, never grunts, he just sits their, almost as though he ca n't feel the needle. 
 
 This time I work up the courage to ask him. 
 
 `` What's with the tallies?'' 
 
 Barely more than a squeak, but his head snaps in my direction. 
 
 He does n't say anything for a moment. Then he speaks. 
 
 He says, `` I'm tallying all the times I've gotten a tally tattooed on me''
