Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual exploitation and assault, emotional and physical abuse, and violence.

Tattoos are an important motif in the novel. They are often in the form of words, which ties them with the symbolism around speech, writing, and silence. Jake is shown to be heavily tattooed, indicating that he is a man of experience, with life symbolically written all over him. Jake’s “My Mexico” tattoo shows the power of tattoos and written words to tell stories which speech cannot. Even before Jake tells Tiernan the story about Flora, Tiernan can tell that this particular tattoo is special. Once she knows about Flora, Tiernan intuits that the tattoo refers both to her as well as to Jake’s need to find a place where he belongs the way he belonged to Flora. “My Mexico” becomes a symbol for the feeling of belonging, which Jake has tried to establish in Colorado.

The other important tattoo is the one which lends the novel its title. Kaleb has only one tattoo on his body, the word “credence” running vertically from the bottom of his skull to the middle of his shoulder blades. The sparseness and rigidity of this tattoo symbolizes Kaleb’s mysterious nature.