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Emily, a brilliant cello prodigy, enjoys the perfect suburban childhood and is destined for big things. Attractive, polite, friendly, multi-talented and intelligent, with devoted parents, Emily's life is a picture postcard sent back from a chaotic and disintegrating social world. Then, at 15, at the whim of her worldly NBFF, she agrees to a tattoo. A simple rose on an emerald green stem. Simultaneously her first step toward identity...and a first tentative step into the abyss.Three years later, Emily is a teenage single parent, disowned by her father and living on benefits in an inner city flat. Her life a pallid tapestry of helpless maternity, fake rum, smuggled fags, crime, Pound Goblins, Topshops, hip-hop, cold precincts, greasy spoons, prescription pills, bad food and a bewildering turnover of boyfriends. Heartbroken by yet another, and in fatalistic mood, she decides to chronicle her fall from grace by covering herself in an elaborate web of tattoos. Enter Alan. An awkward looking, depressed, but sincere older man who is happy to take on her daughter. He's a saviour, a way back to her past and she's tempted, but entwined in her life is Tyrone, a feckless, alluring, charismatic young rapper: Someone she can't quite get out of her head.As her bodywork reaches a conclusion, with one story left to emblazon, Emily is forced to choose: Alan? Or Tyrone? Who will be symbolised by the very last tattoo? TIW is a love story and a wry satire of modern life. The vivid and frequent sexual descriptions mean that this book is suitable for adults only.