Jailhouse tattoos

timeline_event

texture · pre-sobriety, undated

When: during Gately's incarceration/active-addiction years, before Ennet House
What: Gately's homemade jailhouse tattoos: a canted blue square (extra blobs at three corners) on his right wrist that he did himself, and a sloppy cross on his inner left forearm a cellmate did in trade. He explains the whole homemade-tattoo craft to Tiny Ewell; his attitude is stoic acceptance — the tatts are "minor Rung Bells" against far worse irrevocable mistakes he'll be paying off a long time.