72 year old Judith Brook starred in bewilderment at the image that had appeared on the inside of her left arm. Without talking her eyes off it, she reached out with her right hand towards the table in front of her and lifting a cup from it's saucer, she slowly brought it up to her lips.

Sipping her Earl Grey, she wondered how on earth the picture of a skeleton riding a motorcycle managed to manifest itself onto the inside of her arm. She knew in her old age that she was becoming forgetful, but surely she would have remembered getting a tattoo! And if she did consciously get one she would have chosen the picture of her late cat not this hideous thing!

Returning the cup to its saucer, Judith looked back at her arm. With the mystery of sudden appearance of her new, and only tattoo, occupying her mind she overlooked the small round flesh coloured sticky plaster on the palm of her hand. A reminder of the blood given to her that morning.

Then, a strange thought occurred to her, 'I wonder if someone is missing a tattoo?'

Across town, Jason Kline is in a bar drinking his beer looking down at the space in his tattoo sleeve. It had been years since he had seen the bare flesh on his arm. Before he gave blood this morning, in the vaccant space, he had a skeleton riding a motorcycle!
© Alice White