Z

Today I tattooed myself with the letter 'Z'.

I carved the lines into the webbing between the index and middle fingers of my left hand, then rubbed vermilion ink into the open wound.

The letter stands for Zigeuner - the German word for 'gypsy' - and preceded the tattooed numbers used for prisoner identification in Auschwitz.

My family is of Romany descent.

And now I have a permanent, homemade reminder that no matter how bad shit gets

it's never as bad as that.