Unique
Today is Day Twenty-One of the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. Click on the letter picture to the right for more information about this blog hop. Like last year, I’m writing 100-word flash fiction stories/poems/scenes for this year’s challenge. Today’s is:
Unique
John gripped the chair’s leather armrests. Pain management was part of his training, but he didn’t expect anything quite so intense from a needle so small.
It was a simple design: a small silhouette of a unicorn head. He wanted it on the sole of his foot, in the middle, where it wouldn’t be obvious. But he would know it was there.
“All done,” said the tattoo artist, putting down her needle and rolling off her latex gloves.
A small squadron of soldiers marched past the window. It was John’s clone batch, each soldier his exact duplicate.
But not anymore.
Come back tomorrow for V…
Cool story. And I’m soooooooooo glad this month is almost over. I’ll make it to the end, but this posting-every-day shtick is nuts. I don’t know how Janet Reid and others do it. I’m exhausted, even tho I write most of the posts over the weekend and don’t try to push them out the day before. Can’t wait to get back to 1x per week.
Thanks, Dena. This challenge is not for the faint-hearted, and there are a number who drop out before the end–sometimes for quite legitimate reasons (life doesn’t stop happening just because it’s April). But I think you’ve done really well for your first time, and I look forward to reading the rest of your posts. 🙂
And while Janet does put a lot of thought and effort into her posts, what helps her is the fact that a) most of her articles are responses to questions, so she doesn’t have to search too hard for subject matter, and b) she has a community of commenters who will keep the discussion going all day so she can get on with her day job. 🙂
Bottom of his foot? OUCH!
I’ve never had a tattoo, so I had to research this story a bit. I found out that foot tattoos in general can be quite painful because the skin is thin on top, and the bottom of the foot is so very sensitive. But I thought that bit of info helped with my opening line. So yay to research! 🙂
Tattoos on the underside of the arm and anywhere over bone are the most painful. But in my experience, tattoos are less painful than bleaching your hair….
Great story! Amazing how it’s possible to tell something from beginning to end in so few words.
Again, not something I’ve ever done, or am inclined to do (tattoos or bleaching hair), but interesting nevertheless.
Thanks, Kate! I’ve said many times before, I love the challenge of flash fiction for that reason. 🙂
Very good Colin, very, very good.
Thank you, 2Ns. 🙂
Love this story! My daughter has been watching a fair few tattoo shows, so I had to share this story with her.
I wish I could write as brilliant flash as you do. (Alas, I’m a novelist.)
Thank you, Heidi. I am as yet unpublished, but I’d like to think my novels have benefited from all this flash fiction writing.