You Tattooed Me

I was stranded up in Antwerp in the Summer of '54
There were teeming streets full of refugees
And rumours of a new world war
I was waiting at the station when a newcomer arrived
You took your place and fixed me with those crazy hazel eyes...

The boarding house was crowded where I followed you in fright
You slammed the door behind us and smashed the electric light
You said 'why try to fight it?' - I could feel my racing heart
Then you nuzzled up like an animal
And you kissed me in the dark
We wrecked the bed and went, and never paid a cent
I drank the fare and never made the train
Till I was 25 I was only half alive
And I hardly knew what hit me when you came

And tattooed me... tattooed me
No, I hardly knew what hit me when you came

We shacked up in a basement after breaking down the door
With bedbugs in the blankets, broken bottles on the floor
We were penniless and hungry, having arguments and fights
I was coughing blood all winter but I'd never been more alive
And then one fatal day you volunteered your life away
While I was way too weak to be alarmed
And when I was drunk asleep as you left to join the fleet
You tattooed your name with a needle in my arm

You tattooed me... tattooed me
Tattooed me with a needle in my arm

With the peace talks in Geneva we slowly crawled away
From the brink of the unthinkable and began to breathe each day
There were rumours you'd deserted, then no more letters came
My life was wrecked but I did my best to pick up the bits again
And when I was on the mend I drifted back to Zaventem
And worked unloading cargo from a plane
I began to pay my way on a thousand francs a day
And as time went by I realised we'd never meet again

You tattooed me... tattooed me
And I knew that we would never meet again