Tattoo

On the back of her neck she had a pink ribbon with the word mummy in caligraphic scrawl tattooed.
—so that I'd never forget her because people will always comment on it, she told the tattooist as she winced during subcutaneous etching.
No one asked her about it because the symbol is obvious.
When her mother passed away she started finding solace in bottles and loud places, the bar down the street provided both. She took to the habit of bring men home, men that never called back, even though she thought she'd mad a connection with them. The tattoo, if the drunken, bleary-eyed sex had been adventurous, gave the men something to talk about to buffer the post-coital guilt.
Sometimes she cry and they'd console her until she'd fall asleep.
She'd always wake up hungover, cold, and alone.