Bad tattoos and the heimlich

"Chicken" & mozz sammies, peas with dill and butter, water. Later bowl of frosted flakes.

I think this takes place in Buffalo, NY, which Foutzy and I were reminiscing about recently. I think it's mainly around that hip street by the hotel with all the little hippy businesses & restaurants.

My friend, this mustachioed sorta guido guy in a tank top, is going to give me a free tattoo, homestyle. We're looking for a place to set up, preferably outside. We settle next to this concrete stair that joins two sections of broad sidewalk. I can't recall what my tattoo idea was, maybe a solid band across my cheekbones & the bridge of my nose. Or was it something along the side of my neck and up onto my head? Maybe it was never a fully formed idea. I lay down on the top landing of the steps and he goes to work on me. I'm really excited, and I'm not really thinking about what he's doing, off in dreamworld.

But then I notice that he's down on my chin, and I wonder what the hell. I come up out of my reverie and sit up, ask what he's doing. He seems confused; he assumed he was doing the tattoo I wanted. Someone hands me a hand mirror. He's inked brown scribbles all over my face, from over my brows, down my cheeks, to my chin. Sort of a heart-shaped pattern. The dense scribbles are definitely reminiscent of Jaune's Porcupine Ridge color blocks. I panic. He's completely scarred me, it's hideous.

I run home or somewhere I'm staying. I'm certain that I have a book of home remedies that had an entry on how to get fresh tattoo ink back out before the wounds set and it's permanent. I can't find it, and my panic is growing. I try for the internet. I can't figure out how to find the information I know is out there.

I go out in the back yard and there's a crowd of people my age, having a barbecue. A really pretty girl that reminded me of Myra Brown, or maybe one of the Next Top Model girls, is talking and laughing, eating a hot dog. She starts coughing, and at one point I hear a pop noise, I know that the hunk of food just moved from her throat to completely blocking her windpipe. She might actually die, and another young woman tries to give her the heimlich maneuver, but it's not working. Does anyone else know how? I step up, certain of my strength and skill. I grip her and in one powerful jolt knock the blockage out of her. It makes the same popping noise going out as locking in, so I know that she's okay.