Gately's jailhouse tattoos as minor Rung Bells
these irrevocable emblems of jail are minor Rung Bells compared to some of the fucked-up and really irrevocable impulsive mistakes Gately’d made as an active drug addict and burglar, not to mention their consequences, the mistakes’, which Gately’s trying to accept he’ll be paying off for a real long time.
Context
The tattoo essay lands, finally, on the man carrying the worst of the irrevocable: Gately's crude blue jailhouse marks are trivial Rung Bells next to the mistakes he made loaded — the burglaries, the death he never meant — whose consequences he is trying to accept he'll pay off indefinitely. The permanence of ink is only the readable version of the permanence he actually lives under.