“Eraser Tattoo’s” central conflict is a private, intimate one, as Shay and Dante—who have been together as best friends and then as romantic partners since early childhood—must face the pain of a forced separation. Through this personal story, “Eraser Tattoo” also tells the story of a larger, societal conflict, as the story uses metaphor to draw connections between Shay and Dante’s private grief and the larger disruptions that come from gentrification and displacement.

Jason Reynolds uses imagery liberally to paint a vivid picture of life in Brooklyn. He writes that the neighborhood is “Alive, full of sounds and smells. A car alarm whining down the block. An old lady sitting at a window, blowing cigarette smoke” (3). This description gives a sense of the comfortable chaos of Brooklyn that the locals embrace. Later, Reynolds describes Shay’s childhood home. It’s a “small, two-bedroom, third-floor walkup with good sunlight and hardwood floors. […] Ugly prewar bathroom tiles, like standing on a psychedelic chessboard. This was where Shay took her first steps” (5-6). Reynolds’s descriptions convey a sense of familiarity and home, and of a family and community deeply rooted in their neighborhood.