The Campa Saga

My buddy Casey is a tattoo artist, and a fucking good one at that. His work is all over Facebook (Casey Campa) and he just finished doing two tattoos on his sister and her son in memory of their dead Aunt who killed herself yesterday. She left behind two young boys.

The upside, if there is one, is Casey is getting some work as doing ink seems to be feast or famine. His wife, or now ex-wife (they still live together) Bridget also wants to memorialize the passing of this woman with a tattoo on herself - done by Casey.

I was on the phone with Casey today when he was telling me the news about the suicide, along with another friend of ours we grew up with who had shot himself under the chin 13 months ago and lived - albeit without half of his face. It's a fucking tragedy in both cases.

After the initial shock of it all, I got to wondering if Casey can charge his live together ex-wife for her tattoo. There are arguments on either side:

On the one hand they have to co-habitate, dealing with each other on a daily basis and sharing the bills because the economy is so horrible. Casey makes ok money doing tattoo work but not if he does them for free - unless it is his ex-wife. Charging her would be a lesson in futility primarily because the money would go from her hand to his hand to her hand and back in the bank.

Essentially it would probably cost Casey money to charge Bridget for her work in fuel and ATM fees, then the fuel and time to turn around and take it back to the bank.

Granted it is a strange situation but a real one. If he does the work for free the aforementioned costs are avoided and all is as well as it can be at the Campa house. However, Bridget could come to expect that Casey do all of her work for free in perpetuity and therefore he is proper fucked when it comes to her, and her skin.

As far as I know neither one has anyone else in their lives and they both still live under the same roof, although I assume they sleep in separate beds. I know what you are thinking because I am thinking it too - Why be divorced if you are still best friends? Been divorced yet neither has done anything about moving on? I'm sensing some unresolved issues.

The deal they have going is of the worst kind - all the bullshit with none of the benefits. So here is what I propose, not that it makes shit difference to either one of them but it is a potential solution.

Casey will do the tattoo work and take it out in sexual favors when the mood hits him - his time, place and way. I know in Utah it's a sin to screw outside of marriage but I'm pretty sure most of us have fractured that law more than a few times. Oral is a different story altogether, and one that must be negotiated carefully, cautiously - not to be entered into lightly or with doubts. A bad oral experience can ruin a relationship, or so I have heard (that was funny).

The lesson here is be kind to those you love and even kinder to those you don't. People disappoint one another, that is the nature of shit. Bad things happen and people die - it's a part of the process we call life.  We cannot change the inevitable ending we will all ultimately face - we can change what we do with the time we have together and not allow what in reality is not a huge deal to change our paths.