what's wrong, nobody wants to get their hands dirty! nobody wants to do an honest days work for an honest day's pay! are all you afraid of workin' for a livin'? somebody got to want a job. you got your sea legs old man? that's good enough for me! get your ass on board, we'll sure as hell find out! i needs a volunteah. scrape off this bird shit. i'll put you on the books. pay you next time around. what were you born to do, old timer? you haven't found out yet?! how old are you, benjamin, seventy somethin' or other? tha's a good one" you older than hades you creaky old bastard! what the hell you been doing with your life? can you still get it up? the old pole? the hard'n? can you still get it up? when was the last time you had a woman, you creaky old bastard? never! you been on this earth for more than seventy years and you never got any?! that's the saddest thing i ever heard in my life. never? well, then, hell man, you comin' with me!! you din't say? what did your father do? you're a lucky bastard! all father's want to do is hold you down!. out on my father's boat, working da two-a-days. this littl' fat bastard, "tug irish," what they calls them. they say the irish the only one's stupid `nough to work a tug. them and the portuguese, as we all know how stupid them portuguese is. i fin'ly get up the nerves and tell him. "i don't wanta spend da rest of my life on a goddamn tugboat!" you know what i'm sayin'? absolutely, damn right! so you know what my father says? he says "who the hell you think you are?" "what the hell you think you can do?" i tell him. "well if you askin' -- i want to be a artist." he laughs. he says, "if god wanted you to be an artist he would made you one." "god wanted you to work a tugboat just like me, and that's what you goin' to do?" "now, if i ever hear you mention art again, i'll throw you overboard!" well, i went and i show him. i made myself an artist. a tattoos artist! i puts every one on myself! you have to skin me alive to take my art away from me now! when i'm dead i'm going to send him my arm! don't let anyone tell you different! you got to do what you meant to do! and i happen to be a god-damned artist! let's go old timer. break your cherry. this one's on me. and here's you pay for today. don't ever let anybody tell you captain mike didn't give a man what he deserved. "you can't put a price on education" you know what day it is? do you know what dat mean? it means i was very drunk last night. is that a girl? i'm not supposed to be joy-ridin' with civilians. i could lose my license. what you standin' there for! she put in for repair. a wounded duck. she's flyin' now. benjamin. tell me how's it happen you showed up you were no bigger than a bollard. now either i drink a helluva lot more than i think i do, or you sprouted. what's your secret? goddamn right i do! i saws this tattoo puts on a man's back in singapore by sakumoro, the greatest tattoo artist ever lived. i puts it on myself from mem'ry. this idn't just anoter bird! its heart rate's twelve hunerd beats a minute! its wings beats eighty times a second! if you was to stop their wings from beatin, they would be dyin' in less than ten seconds. this is no ordinary bird, this is a frikkin' miracle! they slowed down the wings wit' movin' pictures, you know what it showed, they wing tips are doin' dis. does you know what the figure- eight is the mathematical symbol of?! infinity! roosevelt says we all got to do our part! after them japs attacked pearl harbor everyone's got to! the chelsea's been commissioned to serve in the united states navy, to repair, tow, salvage and rescue. anybody don't want to go to war, now's the time to say so. once you set foot on that boat again, you're in the navy friend! easy old timer. i'll hold it against no man. but speak up now or forever hold your water. you're free to get home any way you can mr. mayes. you a real johnny on the spot, benjamin. i'll take any able bodied mens who wants kick shit out of the japs and the huns. then that's it! we's goin' to war, gentlemen! keeps it down, would you chief! all hands on deck!!! we can't run from the fucker and we can't hide! there's only one thing we can do! battle stations!!! look at what they did! they shot holes in me! they shots the hell out my paintin'! you've seen a lot of things. tell me it's going to be alright. you can be mad as a mad dawg at the way things wents. you can swear, curse the fates, regret every'ting you ever dids. but when it comes to the end. you have to lets go. give me a hand, old man.