Permanent Marker

[Verse 1]
I live on the inside of your left wrist
Right above the pulse you check on the 405.
I'm three weeks old, the peeling's almost done
Just a black-ink bible for a god of one.

[Chorus]
I'm the only prayer you know how to say now
A testimony bleeding through your skin somehow.
Don't you dare regret me, don't you wash me out
I'm the only permanent thing you're sure about.

[Verse 2]
That third Tuesday in July, the vinyl chair was cold.
The needle felt like judgment, or so I've been told.
You didn't even flinch, just stared at the cracked glass
Of the mirror on the wall, watching a stranger pass.

[Bridge]
He said, "This is forever, you get that, right?"
And you thought of his hands in the Silver Lake night.
What if his gospel's just another pretty lie?
Then I'm just a phantom limb you'll have to hide.

[Chorus]
I'm the only prayer you know how to say now
A testimony bleeding through your skin somehow.
Don't you dare regret me, don't you wash me out
I'm the only permanent thing you're sure about.

[Outro]
I live on the inside of your left wrist.
Tell me I'm not the ugliest souvenir that you've ever kept.