26 pages • 52 minutes read
Eraser Tattoo
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Themes
Race and Gentrification
Though the central storyline focuses on a teenage couple, the story’s core conflict is racial inequality and gentrification. The only reason Dante and Shay must separate is because of the wealthy white couple who buy out Shay’s family home, forcing them to leave New York City altogether. Before Shay and her mother leave the house, Shay’s mother remembers all the plants she bought and cared for—“Plants they weren’t able to keep because now this space—their space—was gone. Bought out from under them. Empty” (6). This description, imbued with a tone of sadness and resentment, indicates the obligatory nature of the family’s move. They are devastated to be leaving, but they cannot afford to stay.
What Shay’s family goes through has been an increasingly common experience in New York City, and especially Brooklyn, since the 1960s. As more and more wealthy white people move into lower to middle class neighborhoods, the people who call those areas home—many of them immigrants and people of color—are forced to move out since they can no longer afford to live in them. The story does not explicitly mention gentrification, but it is firmly in the background, informing every event and interaction. The story opens with the new, white tenants rudely double-parking in front of Shay’s house, “replacing” Shay’s father’s car just as the white tenants are replacing the Black locals. In various ways, the tenants take up too much space as they move in—their car leaves no room on the road for others, and they ignore the fact that they physically force Dante and Shay to the edge of the house’s stoop as they walk back and forth past them. These behaviors represent the general attitude of white gentrifiers from the narration’s perspective; they are self-interested and have no regard for the wellbeing of the Black people whose lives they disrupt.
The effect of this gentrification is wide-reaching. It results in disruption and loss—Dante and Shay lose each other, for example, and Shay’s family loses their home and entire connection to their community. Dante’s new eraser tattoo appears white on his skin, suggesting that gentrification imposes white culture onto Black communities and people, in turn harming and even “erasing” Black culture and identity. The story’s closing lines sum up the issue nicely: “White where brown used to be. He knew the sting wouldn’t last forever. But the scar would” (13). These lines refer to Dante’s skin where his new tattoo is, but they also figuratively refer to the newcomers infiltrating Brooklyn. The experiences of Shay’s family and Dante illustrate how, though the perpetrators may be oblivious, gentrification has long-lasting calamitous effects on Black individuals and communities.
The Inevitability of Change
Woven into every conflict in “Eraser Tattoo” is the idea that change is inevitable, and each main character has a different approach to this truth. The main event of the story is Shay moving away. Though Shay doesn’t want to move away, she accepts the change as her new reality and looks for a silver lining in her new home’s proximity to the ocean. She denies Dante’s requests to tattoo his initial onto her skin because (though she cites other reasons) she knows it’s most likely that the two will break up once she moves away. Dante, on the other hand, doesn’t accept that they will break up. In fact, he sometimes seems to willfully ignore the fact that Shay is leaving at all: He never remembers the name of the town she’s going to, and he has never bothered to ask exactly where or how far away it is. Dante also insists on Shay tattooing her initial onto his arm as a sort of permanent record of their relationship. The process of receiving the tattoo is unbearably painful, which symbolizes the harm that can come from refusing to let go and accept impermanence. Dante suffers (physically because of the tattoo, but mostly emotionally) as a result of this stubbornness, while Shay fares better by simply accepting her circumstances.
Shay’s mother struggles profoundly with the change of moving out, but the fact that she spends the day crying shows that, unlike Dante, she is processing the reality of it. Shay also blinks back tears while saying goodbye to Dante, but Dante doesn’t cry. Instead, he talks about improbable possibilities for his and Shay’s future together. After watching Shay’s car pull away, Dante realizes that the scar from his tattoo will last forever—a symbol of the permanent emotional scar that comes from losing Shay. The fact that Shay doesn’t have a tattoo scar like Dante does suggests that she will move on from the relationship more easily.
Shay’s family’s is unfairly forced out of their home, which is a legitimate reason to be upset, but Shay also recognizes that there is no possible way to stop the move from happening. The character’s different approaches and consequent fates show the advantage of accepting impermanence rather than resisting it. Though accepting change is difficult, it is likely to lead to growth and new beginnings, whereas resisting change may simply prolong the pain.
The Challenges of Young Love
Shay and Dante clearly share a deep connection, but the fact that they are both teenagers adds an extra level of difficulty to their relationship. The two have been best friends since they were five years old, and the relationship became romantic when they reached the ninth grade. Dante and Shay laugh about the first time Dante told Shay he loved her as more than a friend, but in addition to being comical, the moment also elucidates the challenges inherent to a couple who has little experience with the vulnerability and open communication that characterizes successful romantic relationships. Dante told Shay he loved her, and his serious tone let her know he meant it romantically. Shay knew she loved him back, but she was too scared to say it, so instead she responded, “No doubt, homie” (11). Even years later, rehashing this memory brings back negative emotions for both of them.
Dante and Shay’s interactions in the present show that both are adolescents and neither has reached complete emotional maturity. Dante wants to continue their relationship after Shay moves away, but he talks about their future together only with lighthearted jokes. As an attempt to avoid acknowledging tough truths and emotions, he avoids serious conversations about the move, forgetting multiple times what the name of Shay’s new city is. On the other hand, Shay is more willing to move on from the relationship, but she doesn’t communicate this effectively to Dante, opting to avoid hurting his feelings instead. Her refusal to let him tattoo his initial on her arm is evidence of her greater willingness to let go of the relationship, but she reassures Dante that this is not the case. When they finally say goodbye, Dante tells her he loves her, but Shay cries—a sign that she is already emotionally in the process of moving on, while he isn’t. She jokingly responds, “No doubt, homie,” (12), showing that even now she is unable to be serious and vulnerable in the face of difficult emotions. This breakdown of communication due to emotional immaturity causes both characters more uncertainty and turmoil than they would experience if they were older and thus more experienced and effective communicators.
A separate challenge related to Shay and Dante’s young age is that their futures are ambiguous due to the lack of autonomy they each have over their own lives. Shay has no choice but to move out of Brooklyn with her parents. As teenagers, each of their lives could go in many different directions in the coming years, and they have no idea how they might grow and change, or what opportunities may arise.
Young love tends to be even more intense and passionate, and Shay and Dante have known each other for most of their lives, meaning that their connection is even stronger. The reality of young love is that in the face of this intensity, the uncertainties inherent to being emotionally immature as well as lacking agency in life make romance difficult and painful.
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