Of tattooed boys and men...

I have sworn off the Serangoon Stadium Pool, for now...reason being the lifeguards are too 'friendly' to me, especially the one with the big belly. I can't help it if I'm the only girl who abhors whitening products... the guys all ignore me there tho, which is good and I've got a sneaking suspicion they're mostly raving men who like other men. I've foun another habitat, at the YCK pool. Much much bigger, sun seems brighter, and its near to the gym altho it takes me a bus and a train to get there. Yea... .. After 2 consecutive days, I've started to feel more at home at yck. Keep meeting the same people, the very very browned guy who was there yesterday and today, at the same spot... uses coppertone oil, and is always sleeping so soundly when I reach my deck chair, 2 chairs away from him. Was there so long today everytime I glanced around, the bodies were replaced by different ones.

Well. Is it just me or are more people, ie guys, getting tattooed nowadays? Or possibly, only people who suntan? Beside me there was a boy, looks youngish, and depressed, he was huddled at the front steps of the pool hugging himself, like a small boy. I wanted to say something to him, "are you sad?" but alas, he left (to school? nyp?), stayed barely an hour. On his left shoulder blade was this huge tattoo of some anime-looking bursts of light, very nice.. it covered his whole shoulder blade. He was replaced by a guy who had a small eagle imprinted on his left thigh, following that, a fellow with a chinese dragon on his shoulder blade. Oh yes, and all the while my right deck chair was occupied by this ex-convict looking (blond fringe. scarred face. platinum earrings) but I'm sure he is very affable... he read '8 days' for a really looooong time... then stalked out a corner of the pool's staircase and slept there too. Tattoos all over body, but I did like the one right at his neck/shoulder curve, although the best I can describe it is that it looks like a transformer face. I wonder what they do, out of the pool... night jobs at pubs? motorcyclists night riders? holidays? slack at home?

For now, we share a common area, deck chairs less than half a metre away from each other. Familiar strangers with different destinies, vastly dissimilar lives, somehow treading a small step into each other's life for a brief moment.