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 realized we'd never meet again You tattooed me, tattooed me And I knew that we would never meet again