Tattoo Shop Details

One of my favorite black and white movies with Clark Gable was, Teacher’s Pet . He’s a hard nosed news paper editor and knows how to get the most information in a small space because the paper doesn’t make money from extra words that could have been used for advertisements. He goes head to head with a journalism professor, played by Doris Day, at the local college. She wants students to do “think pieces” full of emotion to set up the story. The link gives more details along with a short movie clip.

There was an “almost story” about a killing at a tattoo shop in the news this morning. I say almost because the basics; who, what, when, where, why and how didn’t quite make it into the article. What was the name of the tattoo shop? The dead person’s name wasn’t given; next of kin may not have been notified, so they get a free pass. Going past that; was he or she going in for a tattoo, running from someone, going to rob the place? White, Black, Asian or is that important for this story? What part of the body got hit by the gun shot(s)? What kind of clothing was he or she wearing; or, since it’s a tattoo shop, perhaps clothing was optional.

You might be chuckling about that last line, “perhaps clothing was optional”. There used to be a tattoo shop at the corner of Commonwealth and Westheimer here in Houston. I walked in to see the owner about the possibility of letting us put a police fund raising gum ball machine in the entry way; part of a “get to know the folks you police” kind of social meeting. There was a contest to see which officer could place the most gum ball machines; but that’s another story.

When I walked in there was a very shapely woman without a stitch of clothing bent over a chair getting a very flattering rose tattoo on her backside. She seemed quite comfortable, things as they were, with a cop standing there talking to the fellow embroidering her flesh with a rather attractive piece of art; a rose by any other name is still a rose.

I was distracted from my line of thought and was quite surprised when I was given permission to deliver the familiar gum ball machine. Some times I miss being a cop and the interaction with the community, going to art galleries or what ever.

In a related story covered by KPRC, I learned the name of the shop, that the victim was the owner/artist, how many customers were in the shop at the time of the robbery, the number of suspects, the get away car’s description. I went back to see how the Chronicle had updated the information and found a bit more; but not nearly as much as with the KPRC report. I guess it’s just another murder in Houston, no big deal.