Mike Tattoo isn’t the guy people think he is. He’s covered in ink and loves his motorcycles, but he also spends his days caring round-the-clock for his bed-bound 89-year-old mother in a cramped Howard Beach apartment.
The Rest of the Story
Mike Arotsky, also known as Mike Tattoo, is covered in ink and loves his motorcycles. In past lives he was a body builder and an actor on HBO. At 55 years old, Arotsky now spends his days in a cramped apartment in Howard Beach, Queens, spoon-feeding baby food to his bed-bound, 89-year-old mother.
Arotsky’s mother suffers from Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which the immune system attacks the nerves and eventually paralyzes the body. Arotsky doesn’t trust anyone else to look after his mother and can’t stand the idea of sending her to a nursing home. His brother, who lives in the apartment with Arotsky and their mother, works full-time to support the household.
“Unfortunately, American society is all about me,” Arotsky said. “How can you forget your original family?”
The number of seniors in America is growing rapidly. Approximately 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 each day. By 2030, one-fourth of the U.S. population will be older than 65. Currently, about 1.3 million people live in nursing homes, and the average cost of a private room tops $83,000 annually.
Arotsky has chosen to avoid the assisted care facility system entirely, taking on the burden of elder care himself. That means personal sacrifices; friendships and romantic relationships have taken a backseat to the daily cycle of feeding, cleaning, and old television shows. For Arotsky, having control over and close involvement in his mother’s final years is worth it.
Transcript:
MIKE: Believe it or not, now I’m the least menacing I ever looked. If you went back ten or fifteen years when I was on TV, forget about it. People would, like, drop dead. If I walked into a store and somebody was coming out, they might scream. You know, I was 100 pounds heavier, big beard, I was freaking…big. And people who’ve met me, they’re like (gasp), then they talk to me…
(door opening)
MIKE: Osh I’ll be right there kid. Hey Osh everything okay kid? We’ll just move our legs a little. You finished the drink already? Okay, good.
I’ve seen it all with outside help, and I’m not about to find out which are good and which are bad, so I do it all myself.
We’re gonna get up and have some nice supper, right Osh? I’ll make you a nice little bowl of soup. That sound good? And I’ll make something, and we’ll watch Andy Griffith, right? Andy Griffith’s our favorite show.
She was a great mother. She took care of me when I was little. I have great memories. So I do for her like she always did for me.
So we got some sweet potatoes for her and I’m gonna make her some chicken dinner and I’m gonna put in an egg and a little salt and she’ll be all set.
(cooking sounds)
MIKE: It’s a little bit hard to breathe when you’re eating and the sinuses and everything so the oxygen really helps out a lot for a little while. Right, Osh?
CHAYE: Yeah.
MIKE: When you go back to the old humor from the old days, everything was just nice and clean. Good, clean stuff. You gotta remember it’s old humor, but it’s still really cool. Right, Osh?
(“The Andy Griffith Show”, spoon and bowl sounds)
MIKE: Nice and easy. Too hot?
(wind blowing, engine revving)
MIKE: How do you forget about your original family? Everyone does. The nursing homes are full of them.
I cannot go out and have a good time knowing that I could be taking care of her and that she needs my help.
Girls are gone, relationships are over, things like that that I was in. I don’t hang out. Hey Mike, we’re going out here, we’re going out there, can you come? Blah blah blah. We’re all going out Friday night. I don’t do it.
Friends have come and go. Relationships have come and go. Your family doesn’t go.
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I just wanted to look up about the Arotsky’s. You see Mike is actually my cousin. I don’t know whether a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or any other number. I never counted , To me a cousin was a cousin. You see, his father was my mother’s younger brother.
So technically I’m also an Arotsky from my mother’s family.
So you see I’m not making this up Mike’s father’s name was Sam. His mother was Chaye.
I was wild as a pre teen,teen & into my twenties. So Mike would not know me. Maybe he remembers my older brother, Marvin. He used to take photos of Mike & his brother,Mark.when they were infants. I’m older now about the only one left from the
Arotsky family side from the 1940’s-50’s. Any offspring from the 50’s to present wouldn’t
know me, or me them if they were right in front of me
I just had to add my comment. As your last sentence up above states.” Relationships
have come and go. Ypur family doesn’t go
Yes, we “see”, Fred. There’s no need to verify. Because, “you see”, even you’re reading something, you have to see it. If we didn’t see it, we wouldn’t “see”, now would we? But, “you see”, the information you just gave us is all public record and quite honestly sounds like a bad story you concocted because you’re an obsessed fan of his somehow. Though, “you see”, I will admit that the idea of this man having a super fan, as you seem to be, is about as believable as your story is, so maybe there is something there after all. “You see”, the reason I say that is because no normal, sane and/or sober person would comment something as random and as utterly pointless as you’ve done here, all the while including virtually zero evidence of your (to be entirely honest) eerie and creepy claims of familial ties. “You see”, if he was the son of your mother’s brother, that would make you his first cousin, and he yours. Clearly he is close with his mother, and would therefore – short of that brother being adopted or ostracized from his “original family” (yet another set of words that, when put together, sound completely asinine. I can “see” why you were to comment with your own pair upon reading the article. But, “you see”, what does that say about me, then? Perhaps I AM the stupid one here, after all. But I digress.) – short of him having been ostracized and his “original family” having a complete lack of knowledge of YOUR “original family” (I can’t even type that without cringing. Kudos to author for somehow making that possible without making an attempt at humor.) – my point being that, if your story were, indeed, true, then SURELY Mike would know EXACTLY who you were and would therefore negate any purpose of you commenting with such trivial, pointless statements. To whom was your comment intended for, and to what purpose would it serve? Are you trying to reconnect with Mike after a seemingly 50 year hiatus in your relationships with one another? If that were true, then obviously you would have some sort of mutual connection with whom you’d be able to make contact with, and not try to make that connection within the confines of a random comment section under a seldom-viewed-if-at-all-now, article of a nameless, faceless journalist conducting a one-off interview with a small-time actor known for an even smaller role he played over two decades ago. Perhaps your intent was to gain some type of “fame” among the future readers of said article – which, with my best guess, would include no more readers than myself and perhaps two others; three others at most. If this was the case, I assure you that you will, indeed, be remembered, Fred. However, not for the reason you may have hoped. “You see”, you will forever be etched in our memory as the man who used the term “you see” an uncomfortable number of times. I would not be surprised if the article’s/interview’s author took this entire page down because of what you’ve done to this page. “You see” Fred, the poor choice of words you chose to put together and form pointless sentences with for unknown reasons in this comment section is the sole reason behind my burning desire to consume the (required) copious quantities of alcohol and/or illicit substances which shall be left to the imagination (unless I can find the memory-erasing device they used in Men In Black, but I doubt I will find that in time) tonight, with the goal of the aforementioned wanton and otherwise arguably reckless behavior being to confidently wipe away any memory of my having read the abhorrent, careless and cringe-worthy paragraph that you have constructed as poorly as the work of a retarded, senile architect who was tasked with constructing something with only three legos and still found a way to f**k it up. You see, that’s what you have done here, Fred. Such a monstrous creation hasn’t been seen since Dr. Frankenstein created the monster in his book all those fortnights ago. However, “you see”, as silly and pointless as your comment was, I have made it my mission these past five minutes to construct my own silly paragraph to rival yours and waste even more of your time reading it than I, myself, have wasted reading yours; with a bonus point being awarded if I can surpass your idiotic and repetitive use of the words “you see” in the same paragraph and thus be burned into everyone’s memory as “The Guy Who Used The Words ‘You See’ An Uncomfortable Number Of Times” instead of you, thus REALLY negating ANY purpose or redeeming quality of the visual sin you were seemingly hell-bent on committing. “You see”, in conclusion, I don’t care if you’re related to him or not. If I was a betting man, I would conclude that you’re full of more sh*t than a pig farm and are in no way blood related to the gentleman, but that is here nor there. I personally think you were drunk when you wrote that atrocity and were, bizarrely enough, merely seeking attention from the likes of readers, who like I said, amounts to maybe 3 or 4 people since this article was written, which includes me, you,
the “author” and whoever the poor, dense bastard was who asked him or her to write it. I believe I have now accomplished my goal, perhaps the one and only goal of mine that both my peers and parents alike would be beyond embarrassed and ashamed to ever know about had they somehow become aware of it, because “you see”, if somehow they did find out about this, it would be akin to them having walked in on me having sex with microwaved mango, mid act, in their own bedroom, using my own tears as lubricant. So “you see” Fred, we all say embarrassing sh*t Fred, and hopefully this was your big moment in that regard, though I doubt it is. But nevertheless, I hope this comment finds you well, and you are as equally irritated and confused as I was when I read yours. Then, “you see”, I would believe my efforts weren’t in vein.
P.S. – in case I wasn’t clear:
I do see, Fred, and I DID see. We all see, and we all saw. If you weren’t aware, this article was not written in Braille. If it was, I could then see why you asked if we saw so many times, although if you did say “you see” in Braille, I would find that as rude as I would hilarious, as clearly nobody reading f**king Braille could see in the first place, and that would totally erase any purpose for you having asked it. So if you did, that would just make you an a**hole. And I would love you for it. Hell; I love you anyway. You’ve brought me unexpected joy in picking on you, Fred. I feel like I should thank you for it. Have you ever thanked somebody you’ve made fun of for the good time you had? No? Well someday you will. “You see”, you just gained a friend, Fred. Until next time.
Love,
JP
Sadly Fred died in Jan 2021. He was a good man and really wanted to connect with his family, but it never happened.
Just saw that Fred has passed recently, and was, in fact, related.
My post was made at an attempt at humor and was in no way meant to offend. I’m sorry if my comment upset or offended anybody, and was in no way meant to be taken serious, and was entirely in jest. Hopefully he’s up there laughing. Again, my apologies, had I known he passed on I obviously wouldn’t have made the joke. Best wishes to his family and friends.
My sincere apologies,
JP