Eraser Tattoo

“Eraser Tattoo” by Jason Reynolds is a short story published in the young adult anthology Fresh Ink, which contains nine other short stories as well as a play and a graphic novel. A collection of 13 diverse and accomplished YA authors contributed to Fresh Ink, which was published in 2018. Jason Reynolds has written many novels for children and young adults, as well as several graphic novels and a poetry collection.

Reynolds’ protagonists are always people of color, and his stories draw on his personal experiences growing up Black in America in the 1980s and ’90s. As a young adult, Reynolds lived in Brooklyn for some time before he was eventually forced out of his apartment—an experience particularly relevant to “Eraser Tattoo.” The story explores such themes as Race and Gentrification, The Inevitability of Change, and The Challenges of Young Love. “Eraser Tattoo,” written from a third-person point of view, spans just the few minutes that a young couple spends saying goodbye before one of them moves away.

This guide refers to the version of the story published in the 2018 print edition of Fresh Ink.

In the story’s opening lines, Dante and Shay are sitting on the stoop of Shay’s childhood home watching life go by as usual in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Shay’s dad gets into a car and drives away, and another car pulls up to the house immediately after. Shay is preparing to give Dante an “eraser tattoo” by rubbing an eraser into Dante’s skin for so long that it burns and breaks the skin, eventually leaving a scar. Dante wants to give Shay an eraser tattoo too, but Shay refuses, explaining that her dad would be angry if Dante put a mark on her.

Dante reminisces about his childhood. He and Shay have been best friends since they were five years old. Shay taught Dante how to tie his shoelaces, and she used to kiss the wounds he got on his knees whenever he fell.

Earlier in the day, Dante helped Shay’s dad move boxes of the family’s belongings into the truck. Meanwhile, Shay and her mother packed and cleaned, but Shay’s mom couldn’t stop crying all day. She had lived in their home for 20 years and didn’t want to leave, but the house had been sold to a new owner, and Shay’s family was forced out.

Shay starts to rub the pencil eraser on Dante’s arm, and at first it doesn’t hurt at all. Shay tells Dante that she’s going to Wilmington, North Carolina. She’s sad to be moving away but glad that Wilmington is near the water, because she wants to be a marine biologist one day. Shay explains to Dante, “Somebody gotta take care for all the stuff underwater that nobody can see. It’s a beautiful world down there, full of living things that most folks don’t understand” (7). Dante tells Shay that when he’s older he plans to “get rich and famous for building bridges” (7), and jokes that he’ll build a bridge from Brooklyn to Wilmington. Shay is eraser-tattooing her initial on Dante’s arm, and she notices that the curve of the S looks like a frown. Dante says the rubbing is starting to hurt.

While they talk, Dante and Shay are interrupted by the new tenants pushing past them on the stoop. Dante moves to the side to let them through. The eraser rubbing on his skin starts to burn more and more, so Shay keeps talking to take his mind off the pain. She reminds him of the first time he told her he loved her, when they were in 9th grade. Dante and Shay had already been saying “I love you” platonically since they were young kids, but one day Shay could tell that Dante meant it in a different way. At the time, Shay was afraid to say it back, so instead she responded, “No doubt, homie” (11). As the two chat and laugh over this shared memory, the new tenants keep passing by on the stoop, pushing Dante and Shay farther and farther to the edge. Annoyed, Dante tells them that he and Shay will move somewhere else. As they stand up, he tells Shay, “I just don’t know why they couldn’t say excuse me” (12). The tenants hear him but say nothing.

Shay’s mother comes downstairs, annoyed that the new tenants are bringing in their belongings before the family is fully moved out. She wipes away tears. When Shay’s mom gets in the car, Dante and Shay kiss goodbye. Dante tells Shay to call him when she gets to Wilmington. He watches the car pull away with difficulty—the new tenants had double-parked their truck and left little room for Shay’s mom’s car. Saddened, Dante looks at the finished tattoo on his arm. He notes that it’s “[w]hite where brown used to be” (13). It still hurts. Dante considers that the pain will soon go away, but the scar will remain there forever.