How the Pumpkin got the First Tattoo

I am reluctant to discuss neurodiversity in blog posts these days, given the current sociopolitical climate. I wrote this story in a writing warm-up exercise today, it’s inspired by autistic play, and I’m fine sharing this.

It’s true that you don’t often see a tattoed Halloween pumpkin, so Alex is used to getting occasional stares and lots of questions about their tattoes. Did they choose to get them or were they branded this way? Did it hurt as much as carving? Is it permanent? Where did they even get it done, and is there any meaning to the tattoes?

Alex doesn’t like small-talk, but Alex why people ask. So Alex usually mumbles one of a few short responses they made up eventually.
“I got bit by a spider and woke up like this the next morning”. “My first home was in a human biker gang and they used me for teaching purposes” “What tattoes?” (since they’re on Alex’s back and Alex can’t see them).

Alex likes their tattoes but wished they didn’t prompt interactions with strangers quite as often. Worse, the tattoes seem to prompt people to project spectacular assumptions onto Alex, which is more telling of what people think about Alex than anything else, and every time, Alex feels their actual self disappear just a bit more around others.

The real story about how Alex got the first tattoo is not spectacular, just like Alex isn’t. It just happened. Alex lives with Ti, who is an 8 year old human boy, and Alex and Ti vibe. When they get together, they often get into a creative flow that is just fun. It’s only when others see the results that Alex notices that others seem to find their ideas and creations extraordinary, ‘out of the box’. For Alex and Ti, they’re just play.
The tattoes just made sense. Ti knew how to make them, they did. They both like the results, but mostly, they were just having fun.
Apparently, that is so unusual that explaining this just seems impossible – people assume Alex makes social commentary and it turns into a whole discussion.

So the story of how Alex got the first tattoo no longer gets told. It’s not a story at all, but Alex is glad they have it. And so is Ti.