Tattoos

Tattoos create a theme that runs through the entire novel, which takes its name from the words that Jack's mother has tattooed on her chest. She herself is a tattoo artist who works continuously and gains a widespread reputation for being a good artist. Interestingly, she tells Jack she has never been tattooed and that she does not want him to ever get a tattoo while she is alive. As she is approaching death, however, Jack learns she does have a tattoo she has hidden from him. It is a broken heart with "Until I Find You" written across it.

William Burns, Jack's father, is what tattoo artists call "full-body." He is a certain kind of obsessive who has every unexposed inch of his body covered with tattoos. In the case of William, he seems to have used tattoos to chronicle the pain and joy in his life...