Ink Me

1

"You sure about this place?" A long red haired male asked himself skeptically, his eyes taking in the place that laid in front of him as he shut the door to his car.

Soul Reaper Ink was what the place was called, and the brick building's shiny black paint shone brightly in the sunlight that beat down on the earth. The large glass windowpanes on each side of the building beside the entrance door showed that the inside of the shop was quaint and tidy, and the sign above the door that spanned the width of the building suggested that it was probably punk and grunge themed (if Renji went from the spray painted font and the dude he saw sitting at the counter with a three foot mohawk).

All in all the red haired male, Renji Abarai being his name, liked the look of the place, he really did, but he hadn't seen any of their tattooists' work, and all he knew was how much it was going to cost and who he would be dealing with.

The person doing his tattoo work was some man named Shuhei Hisagi, and while Renji had never seen him, he had read about him in tattooing magazines that called him 'a ink god' and when he asked around everyone seemed to be very positive and ecstatic about him and his work.

So, Renji decided to see where it would go.

The redhead inhaled nervously as he walked up to the door, opening it slowly with shaking hands before stepping into the air conditioned area.

On the inside it seemed spacious: a large counter like piece jutted out on the right side of the room, and Renji noticed that behind the counter space laid the tattoo chairs in what appeared to be stations.

There were breaks in the counter that ran the length of all the stations, giving the artist and the tattoo receiver a way to get in and out.

The walls were a dark red, with black splatter paint on them, and the counters were the opposite: black with red splatter paint. The walls were lined with posters, all of them evenly spaced, and in the area before where the tattoo stations sat hung a gallery.

Renji wandered over to the gallery and began flicking through them, whistling in appreciation and disbelief in the back of his throat at the detail.

It was then that the redhead looked down at the signature, and he mentally felt himself become floored.

Shuhei Hisagi, his designated tattooist, had done all of them.

There were portraits of famous people at the top, and each one was spot on. Almost as if the tattoo was actually living and breathing on the skin. Below that were traditional Chinese dragons, and the detail nearly caused Renji to go crossed eyed as he tried to count the hairs on the mouth.

"Hello, welcome to Soul Reaper Ink, my name's Ichigo Kurosaki," a male with orange hair and an arrangement of piercings and a set of glasses greeted him from somewhere near the middle of the room, a sketch book resting on his lap as he drew beside the counter, "what can I do for you?"

Renji jumped, being pulled from his thoughts, and he rubbed the back of his neck as his brain caught up with the process.

"Yeah, I've got an appointment today."

"Ah, right this way then."

It was then that the male put the sketchpad up onto the counter, gesturing for the other to follow him as he hopped off the metal barstool he had been sitting on and walked over to the check out counter and then typed something up on a computer.

"What's your name?" The orange haired male asked, looking up at Renji from the edge of his glasses.

"Renji Abarai," Renji answered, watching the orangette's fingers as they flew across the keyboard.

"Alright," the glasses wearing male stated, Ichigo if Renji remembered correctly, his eyes scanning down the screen as if he was searching for something.

"Ah ha! Found it!"

The approclamation scared the redhead, his frame visibly tensing as he eyed the orange haired man skeptically.

"Oh," the pierced man laughed sheepishly when he realized what he'd done, "sorry about that." He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, a small smile at the corner of his lips.

"It's, uh, alright," Renji stated, smirking slightly at the other to show him that it was alright.

"Shuhei's station is the middle one over there-" Ichigo's hand pointed to the area that Renji had looked at earlier- "I'll go get Shuhei and he'll be with you in a bit."

"Alright," Renji nodded and walked over to the indicated chair awkwardly, sitting down and messing with the hem of his black tank top.

To be honest he was nervous, this wasn't his first tattoo, but he was nervous because of how big it was. From collar bone to pelvic on his torso would be nearly completely covered, and all of it was thick black tribal designs.

Just then Renji saw the orange haired male from before walk past him, and he watched as the male disappeared behind a curtained off area; Renji assumed it was the break room for the tattooists and piercers.

Renji looked around the room again, taking in the horror movie and band posters that were hung on the walls.

Hand signed photos of famous horror actors lined the top of the wall that his back was facing, all of them above the mirrors put at the stations, and Renji nearly had a heart attack when he saw that there was a hand signed poster of Captain Spaulding hanging above the mirror at the station he was at.

His tattooist had actually met the person who played Captain Spaulding.

Maybe this Shuhei dude really was as famous as he seemed.

It was also then that the sounds coming from the stereo above him hit his ears: it was something rock, just on the border of being heavy metal, and Renji felt like it suited the place just fine.

"Hey there, I take it your Renji?"

A soft and smooth voice startled him out of his thoughts, and he looked up quickly only to have his breath ripped from his lungs.

This man was gorgeous.