Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for March 21, 2009

All things considered, I don’t like the idea tattoos because of why westerners originally got them. At first, sailors got them in Asia so that, if their naked corpses turned up on a beach somewhere (the sea has a way of battering your clothes off your body) the locals would know who you were and where to send your body or what name to stick on your gravestone. ICK!!!

Today many still get them for that reason. To identify who they are in case of death.

Thanks for that information ejcapulet. I never knew that before.

My sister has considered getting one for that reason (she travels internationally and usually alone). Problem is that if the body decays too much before it is discovered, the tattoo isn’t always legible. I guess salt water would preserve a body, as long as the sharks didn’t get to it first.

Did anybody else notice that she’s nursing the baby in the first panel?

And I actually didn’t know that about the tattoo/earring background - thanks guys!

Some cultures that where tattooing is a social norm, will tan the hide of the deceased and display it prominently. Take the line from the song “Tie me Kangaroo Down”. “Tan me hide when I’m dead Fred, tan me hide when I’m dead. So we tanned his hide when he died Clyde, and that’s it hanging on the shed”.

Melisa D. said: ‘Did anybody else notice that she’s nursing the baby in the first panel?’

No, prob’ly because Luci’s not dribbling back a little milk over everyone’s brekkie in panels two & three :-p (but good catch!)

i did not notice she was nursing the baby.. that is good though. not enough women nurse there babys. it is better for them.

Having a tattoo doesn’t define you either!