[ WP ] Emotional pain can create tattoos as physical pain can create scars .

Mia was always drawn to the darkness that lives inside. 
 
 I remember when she came home from the first day at her new school, talking about her new friend. 
 
 `` He's got dark skin, daddy, it's *beautiful*!'' 
 
 I smiled indulgently and tousled her hair. 
 
 `` Oh, is he black? Hispanic?'' Either would have been a bit of a departure from Maine, where she'd lived all her life. 
 
 `` No, daddy, his skin has blue! The most beautiful blue...'' 
 
 Eventually, I met Ian. He shyly offered me a hand. His glossy brown hair was long, draping over the left side of his face, kept there by his habitual head-tilt. 
 
 Fine filigree lines and Lichtenberg-figure scarring in Persian Blue went from beneath that shining cap of hair and down below the collar of his cheap polo shirt. 
 
 I noticed that he kept his left hand in the pocket of his jeans. 
 
 I noticed that he never met my eyes. 
 
 I noticed that even after he'd become a part of our little family, spent summers with us, celebrated birthdays... gave Pidgeon his name... 
 
 I'm sorry... 
 
... I... noticed that he never got over that shyness about his body. That he'd hide it with clothes and his hair. And he never talked about it. 
 
 I never pressed him. 
 
 Obviously. 
 
 I could only imagine what a horrifying thing that must have lead to... 
 
 I did n't know what his dad did... I... I do n't know that it would have changed anything. 
 
 Who could take something like that out on a child? I do n't know that I could have treated him any differently, even if I had known... 
 
 But I think... I think that maybe I would have watched him more. Maybe I would have seen some signs. Something when he looked at Mia, something... 
 
 I'm sorry. 
 
 I... I feel like I've lost both my children. 
 
 I *have* lost both my children. 
 
 Thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you. I'm sorry... 

