Fresh Ink

Chapter 1

Luna’s pov

The bell on the shop door rung signaling that someone has entered, sighing I Stan up from where I was sitting in the back office and walked toward the front. Standing in the brightly lit room looking at all the sketches on the wall stood a pretty tall guy, he was in great shape possibly twenty maybe twenty one. He wore green shorts that had plenty of pockets with a black sleeveless shirt and grey Jordans. “Tattoo or piercing.”  I say lazily wanting to get this over with so I can get paid and go home. He finally turned around and I got to see his face, his skin looked pale and smooth, while his almond shaped eyes wore a light layer of eyeshadow. He smiled at me and for some reason it made me feel safe, though I had never met the guy before. His hair was slightly curly and a sandy type of color that covered up most of his forehead and eyebrows.

“ Both actually.” He said after a while which caused me to raise my eyebrows. Normally the only time people request to get both done they are drunk or high. “You sure?” I ask and he confirms by nodding his head with a slight smile. I shrug my shoulders knowing that he confirmed what he wanted to be done on camera and that he couldn’t come back and complain for any reason later on down the road. “Alright then just sign here and pick what you want done and where you want it, then let me know when you’re ready.” I say while handing him the clipboard and pen. He scribbles his signature down and returns it back to me. I watch him flip through the books for a minute or two until he finally chooses a tattoo. 

“Um this one please.” I look down a what he’s chosen and smile. It was a cute dragon that almost looked like toothless from how to train your dragon. “ okay nice choice so what would you like, realism , blackwork, or watercolor?” he stared at the stencil for a bit then replied, “ill go with watercolor.” I nod and grab my tablet and begin to redraw that using a digital art app until it came out exactly how he wanted it. We went through the same process for the piercing only I didn’t need to draw anything. What shocked me even more than the fact that he was getting both a tattoo and a piercing was that in total he wanted to get eleven pierces.  He was getting  helix, lower lobe, upper lobe, daith, Forward helix and outer conch all pierced on the same ear and one single lower lobe on the other. He had laughed at me when I made a shocked face at his request and said “don’t worry I have a high pain tolerance and I heal pretty fast.” I just laughed and hoped what he was saying was the truth at that time.

Now he was currently sitting on the chair with his ears freshly pierced not even reacting to the pain that his ear should have felt. I put the needle I was using down still in disbelief. “Can I ask you a question?” he asked while I set up to start his tattoo. I only nod more focused on what I’m doing than to look at him. “ How come you used a needle for this, I mean wouldn’t the gun have been faster.” I rolled my eyes and spoke, “ I used the needle because the gun just shatters the cartilage and on top of that the amount of damage the gun would do to your ear after all those piercings would not be pretty. I don’t like using them at all so I do all my pairings with a needle. The needle is better anyway because I have a clear view of what I’m doing so I won’t mess up” He nods and looks thoughtful for a moment before speaking again, “oh by the way I never asked your name, what is it?” there was a brief pause as I sat down and pulled my tools next to me. “My birth name is Luna but around here every one calls me ghost.” 

“Why?” after I had gotten the templet set on his skin I turned on the machine and leaned forward. “The owner of this place is Japanese and when I first started working here I kinda moved around like a ghost and constantly scared people the way I would just appear next to them without making a single noise. The owner, Akio started calling me Yurei, which translates to-“ before I say anything else he finished my sentence. “Ghost. It does suit you to be honest, both names actually.” Not know what he meant I asked him to elaborate. “Well your birth name Luna fits because you look like a strong female who gives orders and doesn’t take smack from anyone, like a Luna in a wolf pack and Ghost because of how you look, well how you dress.” i pulled away from his arm and looked down I guess he’s right to be honest. My outfit even give me the title emo. Other then my mid-purple hair and matching shoe laces I was dressed in all black. Which made me look really pale now that I think of it. “And the ink and everything,” he continued “ make it all come together.” I smiled as I went back to work on his tattoo as we kept talking.

Two hours later……

Giving this mans arm whose name I found out was Kai, one last wipe after I finished he tattoo I looked up and said, “all done”

He thanked me for it then glanced at the clock that was sitting in the corner of the room. He payed me and left letting me know that he’d be back soon for more. From the time I spent with him he seemed like a really nice guy. He mentioned some stuff about moving away from his family and wanting to get a complete makeover, and some other stuff about finding a place to stay. Fro what I gathered he wanted to get a fresh start and live his own life. There was something about him though that I couldn’t  put my finger on at the moment. Something made him stand out, and I mean besides his model like looks, pain tolerance that was higher than I’ve ever seen and weirdly calming smile, there was something else about him that just made him stick out that none of the hundreds of people I have worked with and been around had.

Maybe i’ll find out if he really does come back for more tattoos. I go back to my office to clean, shortly after I finish I put all my tools away and get ready to close up shop when I hear they bells on the door ring. “We’re closed come back tomorrow”I shout from my office and get no response. That’s odd normally i’ll get and okay or a sure thing or something like that. I go behind my desk and pull out my katana  daito, that I kept hidden. I unsheathe daito and walk to the front preparing for anything just in case. To my surprise the room was completely empty. There was no way anybody could have went into any of my coworkers offices because they were all locked. Looking around I notice that there’s a paper stuck to front desk. Putting daito away I walk up to the note that read, - Lets me tomorrow at the cafe down the street from here 2pm- Kai.  

Shaking my head I take the note and put it in my pocket then finally closed up. It was about 11:30pm so the streets were mostly empty as I walked home. To keep myself occupied I thought of some song lyrics to write. 

Time skip….

20 minutes later I’m now home and for half of my walk I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching me. I had daito with me the whole way so I wasn’t to worried though. Then it came to me, the bells on the shop door never rang to signify that kai had left. How did he manage to get out so quietly. I tried to think of ways they it would have been possible while getting ready for bed and couldn’t come up with a single one. “ well maybe I wasn’t paying any attention.” I said finally dismissing it as I crawled into bed and drifted off to sleep shortly after.

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Thanxx Jhopeishoseok for creating the cover.

SO...

this is the first chapter, let me know what you think plz vote and comment.

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