Sometimes I Get Tattoo Envyby Coleen Patrick
There is a moment in my new YA novel, Come Back to Me, when Whitney realizes everything she’d ever assumed about Evan Foster could be wrong.
It’s when she gets a glimpse of his tattoo.
Whitney already didn’t want to like him, not because he was a typical bad boy, but because he was the opposite—the good guy who drove her home from a graduation party, after she’d passed out next to a ditch. The good guy who inadvertently got Whitney sent away for three weeks of trust falls, group therapy, and crafting.
The tattoo surprises her, makes her think about him in a different way.
Tattoos intrigue me too. I don’t have one (yet?), but there’s something about a tattoo that symbolizes a certain element of freedom, an ability to express yourself (almost) permanently.
Maybe I have tattoo envy.
And I’m not alone. According to a recent poll on BuzzFeed, the number one question people with tattoos are sick of hearing is,
Can I touch it?
It’s not that I’m a stranger to them. My husband has one (fraternity letters). Both my sisters and my brother
 |
| My sister's sleeve tattoo |
got tattoos. Even my dad.
My mom is currently tattoo free. At least, I think. Although, when she finished reading Come Back to Me, the conversation started like this:
Mom: Who’s Evan?
Me: What do you mean?
Mom: Who did you base him on?
Me: Um, no one. I made him up.
Mom: Oh. (sighing, disappointedly). I wanted to meet him.
Me: (trying not to laugh)
Mom: He’s just…oh….hmm, well…he has that tattoo!
Tattoos are intriguing, polarizing, fun (even funny, ever seen one spelled wrong?), mysterious, sexy, romantic, rebellious, dangerous, bad…a million reactions over ink on skin.
Come Back to MePublication Date: March 2013
Genre: YA Contemporary
Whitney Denison can’t wait to start over.She thought she had everything under control, that her future would always include her best friend Katie… Until everything changed.Now her life in Bloom is one big morning after hangover, filled with regret, grief, and tiny pinpricks of reminders that she was once happy. A happy she ruined. A happy she can’t fix.So, she is counting down the days until she leaves home for Colson University, cramming her summer with busywork she didn’t finish her senior year, and taking on new hobbies that involve glue and glitter, and dodging anyone who reminds her of her old life.When she runs into the stranger who drove her home on graduation night, after she’d passed out next to a ditch, she feels herself sinking again. The key to surviving the summer in Bloom is unraveling whatever good memories she can from that night.But in searching for answers, she’ll have to ask for help and that means turning to Evan, the stranger, and Kyle, Katie’s ex-boyfriend. Suddenly, life flips again, and Whitney finds herself on not only the precipice of happy but love, too, causing her to question whether she can trust her feelings, or if she is falling into her old patterns of extremes.As she uncovers the truth about her memories, Whitney sees that life isn’t all or nothing, and that happy isn’t something to wait for, that instead, happy might just be a choice.
Coleen Patrick grew up in New Jersey, Virginia, Michigan, Louisiana, and Indiana. Always being the new kid, she learned that books and friends are precious—and dessert. She never met a dessert she didn’t like (except for flan).
When she’s not writing, reading (or avoiding flan), she enjoys TV, arts and crafts, quoting movies, and trying to take cool photos.
She lives in Virginia with her husband and two kids.
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