Friarage Infants School (Photo taken 1971)I remember my first day at Friarage Infants School on Longwestage, Scarborough (UK). Friarage was split into three schools then: Infants, Juniors and Seniors. The photograph above shows the Infants section on the northern end of the school.
We'd just moved from Westway in Eastfield just outside Scarborough to 7 Princess Terrace. The move was spurred by the fact that my father wanted to return to the bottom end of town where he was born. "Bottom Enders" are people born and brought up in the bottom end of Scarborough near the harbour, and consisting mainly of fishing families, and being a Bottom Ender was (and still is to this day) something to be extremely proud of. (See Facebook Page Bottom Enders.)
I was placed in the final year of the Infants Scool just before we all got promoted into the Junior section of the school. Upon being introduced to the rest of the class, I was placed next to a boy called Jamie Blackburn whilst everyone there was painting and colouring in. Jamie told me he was a tattooing expert, and would show me how to tattoo my name on my arm.
He did his arm first by prodding it with a sharp pencil until it started to bleed, and he kept prodding it until his name was written on his arm in a light grey from the lead of the pencil.
Next it was my turn, so I copied the procedure. It hurt likke hell, but I persevered and was quite pleased with the result. The only problem was that when I got home, it all washed off.
Next day, Jamie's explanation was that I hadn't done it properly and would have to jab my arm harder. I didn't believe him, so gave up at that point. I've never had a tattoo since that day, and don't think I ever will.
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