man on train with tear

here’s a picture i took back in 2003 with my first camera, which was a canon digital point-and-shoot that my parents bought me.  the first camera i ever consciously used was my brother’s canon film slr.

i was on the train home when this guy got on, he was a bit dirty, a bit homeless.  he sat next to me, and started talking to me… can’t remember what about, but i asked about his hand tattoos or something, and he told me to never get any.  i asked him why, and he told me that he had once regrettably had a woman’s name tattooed onto his shoulder, and when drunk, had carved it out with a knife.  pretty awful, but i was more shocked that he had the tear tattooed under his eye 14 years prior, and not cried another real one since.  it’s probably the first picture i took that set me about getting better at taking pictures.

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