Tattoo

The poem relies heavily on imagery appealing to the reader’s sense of sight. This is strategic because the speaker’s visual notations create a defined sense of realism. Due to this, the reader tends to regard the speaker’s more subjective observations regarding the man as verisimilitude. The rendering of the tattoo is very specific—“a dripping dagger” (Line 2) that goes through a “shuddering heart” (Line 3). This typical heart and dagger tattoo can easily be visually conjured up. It is recognizable and familiar. This specificity makes us believe the speaker’s assumption that the man got the tattoo as a “statement” (Line 1) because “vanity once punched him hard” (Line 5). The speaker correctly observes that the man is “old” (Line 13), enhanced by the description of his “bony old shoulder” (Line 4) under his “rolled up” (Line 12) t-shirt sleeves. Because of the accuracy, when the speaker notes the man rolls his sleeves to “show us who he was” (Line 12), this observation is treated as accurate. The speaker tells us that the man “looks like” (Line 6) a person you “had to reckon with” (Line 7), suggesting by the word “had” a shift to a previous incarnation of the man. The speaker then compares the younger version of the man to a familiar animal—a “stallion” (Line 8). Because of the visual correlation to the recognizable horse, we assume that the “strong” (Line 8) and “ornery” (Line 8) nature of the horse can be emotionally applied to the man. Setting the poem specifically at a familiar small-town event adds to the realism. It is easy to picture the older man with the tattoo at the morning “yard sale” (Line 10) as he “walks between the tables” (Line 10) and examines the “broken tools” (Line 14). All this visual clarity makes it seem truthful when the speaker concludes that the heart of the man has “gone soft and blue” (Line 15), something that cannot possibly be seen. Without the sharp accuracy of visual imagery, the poem’s imaginative emotional leaps would not be successful.