Blondell Wayne Tatum, a.k.a. Chemo, is a fictional character who has appeared in two novels by

Carl Hiaasen Carl Hiaasen (; born March 12, 1953) is an American journalist and novelist. He began his career as a newspaper reporter and by the late 1970s had begun writing novels in his spare time, both for adults and for middle grade readers. Two of his ...

, '' Skin Tight'' (

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

) and '' Star Island'' (

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Personal history

Tatum was born in

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

. His parents belonged to a religious sect that believed in

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

, and refusing to pay income taxes. Tatum was orphaned at age six when his parents were killed in a shootout with

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

agents in a post office outside

Grand Forks Grand Forks is a city in and the county seat of Grand Forks County, North Dakota, United States. The city's population was 59,166 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in the state, after Fargo and Bismarck. Grand For ...

. He went to live with his aunt and uncle, who were fugitives from

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that r ...

mail fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service) or electronic (e.g., a phone, a telegram, a fax, or the Internet) mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. fede ...

charges in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, masquerading as

Amish The Amish (, also or ; ; ), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, church fellowships with Swiss people, Swiss and Alsace, Alsatian origins. As they ...

wheat farmers in rural

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. Blondell first turned to crime when he was sixteen ( holding up a bank with a

pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

), eventually becoming a corrupt, though popular, city official in a small Pennsylvania town. His life took a drastic turn due to a freak accident during an

electrolysis In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses Direct current, direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of c ...

procedure to remove two ingrown hair follicles from the tip of his nose. While Tatum was unconscious, the doctor suffered a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

and mistakenly applied the needle to his entire face. After Tatum woke up, he killed the doctor and fled the city, trying to find a cure for his facial condition. One wrongly-prescribed medication produced a lasting effect which "looked as if someone had glued

Rice Krispies Rice Krispies (known as Rice Bubbles in Australia and New Zealand) is a breakfast cereal produced by WK Kellogg Co for the United States, Canadian, and Caribbean markets and by Kellanova for the rest of the world. Rice Krispies are made of ...

to every square centimeter of his face" and led to his nickname, "Chemo" (since many people wrongly assumed he was undergoing

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

). In

Bal Harbour, Florida Bal Harbour is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The village is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The population was 3,093 at the 2020 US Census. History Since the 1920s, the Detroit-based Miami Beach Heights Corpo ...

, he approaches Dr. Rudy Graveline, a plastic surgeon who offers him a discount on

dermabrasion Dermabrasion is a type of surgical skin planing, generally with the goal of removing acne, scarring and other skin or tissue irregularities, typically performed in a professional medical setting by a dermatologist or plastic surgeon trained spec ...

treatments in exchange for Chemo killing Mick Stranahan, a former State Investigator who is causing Rudy worry. During his first, failed attempt, Chemo drowns Stranahan's vengeful ex-wife, Chloe, with an anchor, after she points out the house she thinks is his. During his second, Chemo dives off the balcony of Stranahan's

stilt house Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on Stilts (architecture), stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they als ...

Biscayne Bay Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is large ...

, and his hand is bitten off by a strike from Stranahan's pet

Great Barracuda ''Sphyraena barracuda'', commonly known as the great barracuda, is a species of barracuda, a genus of 27 species of large ray-finned fish found in subtropical oceans worldwide. In its natural habitat, the great barracuda is an apex predator. D ...

. Instead of a conventional prosthesis, he chooses to attach a portable weed whacker. The whole affair spirals out of control, though Chemo is able to steal an amount of cash from Graveline that allows him to undergo a complete facial dermabrasion from a competent plastic surgeon. Although this treatment succeeds in removing the "Rice Krispies" effect, his surgeon advises him that he will still have to regrow the outer layer of his facial skin. Eventually, Chemo is caught in a confrontation between Graveline and Stranahan out on the stilt house, where he kills Graveline out of fear (or mortification) that Graveline is about to confess the terms of the "deal" that he and Graveline had for killing Stranahan. Chemo is later arrested, and sentenced to four concurrent seventeen-year life sentences at Raiford. In 2010, he is back in Florida, having been paroled after 17 years, and enjoyed a lucrative spell of employment as a

mortgage loan A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners t ...

broker. After the subprime mortgage bubble bursts, he is back to doing security, sometimes as a bodyguard for visiting celebrities. He carves out a small specialty for himself as a

life coach Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

for those with self-destructive addictions, since he has no awe whatsoever of fame, is immune to seduction, and not at all averse to beating his charges to pulp if they misbehave themselves. After pop star "Cherry Pye's" latest drug-and-alcohol escapade, her record promoter recruits Chemo to be her latest bodyguard, over the objections of her family.

Appearance

Aside from his facial condition (which never completely recovers after the electrolysis mishap) and the weed trimmer attached to his arm, Chemo's appearance is also frightening because of his pallid, almost-reptilian complexion, the sparse hair on his scalp, and the fact that he stands 6'9" tall.

Books with Chemo

* '' Skin Tight'' * '' Star Island''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tatum, Blondell Wayne Carl Hiaasen characters Literary characters introduced in 1989 Fictional amputees Fictional criminals