Summary

All of Me - In present tense narration, the author describes revealing the meaning of her various tattoos to her beloved, and her practice of doing so for every person she is with. This, she says, is the best way for people to get to know her.

Shifting into past tense narration, the author outlines some of the aspects of having as many tattoos as she does, and describes the origins of what seems to be the tattoo that means the most to her – that of jazz singer Billie Holliday who, the author writes, was both a drug addict and an influential, groundbreaking jazz vocalist. The author describes how she became enthralled with Holliday and her music while living in New York, surviving the breakup of a relationship with a man and falling deeper into her own heroin addiction. She writes...