i had an older black couple come in wanting to get tattooed a few months ago that was quite memorable. the husband was a mute so his wife did all the talking and she informed me that he needed to get seven names on his forearm. not particularly caring to ask why so many names i went about preparing the design and attempting to communicate with him to find out exactly what he wanted, but basically the wife told him what he was getting and i started tattooing. as im on name number two i ask the lady, "are these the names of your children?" to which she replied, "no, they're all the names of my different personalities. i have multiple personalities." struggling not to bust out laughing i asked, "really? that's so interesting! when we're you diagnosed?" she said she had never been to a doctor or therapist but she just knew. the old man just sat there grinning and making weird noises as he was a mute. she stated that if he loved her he had to love all of her personalities, even the bad ones. "you don't want to meet mary lou!" was one of the more interesting things she said about her inner conflict of persons.
before she left she said they would be back again because they couldn't afford to get all of them that day.