Ink of the Heart

MysterYnk

"Come on! This place may be open 24 hours but we sure as heck don't want to arrive any later when they're exhausted and feeling less creative! Autobots, let's roll out!!"

That's Cassidy, an overly excited bundle of sunshine who also happens to be my best friend. She had decided that she wanted a tattoo last moment on the last night of our girls trip and being the best friend that I was, I had agreed to do it with her. Not just any tattoo though, oh no. That would make too much sense. No, this nutcase decided that she wanted to try out a shop called "MysterYnk" to which she informed me was a combination of "mystery" and "ink" as she bounced beside me, moving at my pace towards the main doors of the hotel lobby. "You go there, you pay a set price for whatever sized tattoo you want and stick whatever limb you want inked into a curtain drawn room. The artist is on the other side and tattoos something random where ever on whatever limb you produce! Isn't this so exciting?!" She was beaming. I was sweating balls. Well it's as they say: If you're gonna make a bad decision, do it with a friend. Or something like that.

"Positively elating." I say deadpan.

"Oh don't be like that Shan. This is going to be great. I mean just think of all the crazy stories you'll get to come up with when people ask 'Why'd you get that?'."

"I'd love to. If only I knew what I was getting."

"Oh, you'll be fine!" She laughed, pulling open the driver side door and sliding in. Begrudgingly, I yanked mine open and plopped into my seat as well. She turned her torso face me. "Shan, could you at least pretend to be a little more excited about this? It's not like I'm holding a gun to your head. You said you would do this with me, remember?"

"Yeah, when I was under the delusion that my best friend still had a coherent and proper thought forming brain rattling around her skull." I reached over and knocked my knuckles against her temple lightly.

"Well that wasn't very nice." She pouted for just a moment before a smile began to smooth out her wrinkled brow, nose, and lips. "Come on Shan, we're 26! This is one of the only trips that we've ever taken by ourselves and I want to commemorate it with something awesome. Something that's ours."

"And your idea of 'awesome' is permanently marking our bodies with something completely pulled out of left field by a complete stranger at-" I glanced down at my phone "-Eleven thirty-six pm?"

"Yes, you asshole. Now put on your seat belt."

"I think I'd rather make my odds of getting out of this better by leaving it unbuckled."

She lowered me with a glare that told me she'd wrap it around my neck if I didn't comply. So I did.
She drove at the local speed limit but before I could get a wink of rest, we were parked and she was opening my door for me. We walked into the shop and to my surprise, there were quite a few patrons there. A girl was walking out with a massive tiger and water lily piece that was covered in clear saranwrap; it was tastefully placed on her left arm and was beautifully done in color from her shoulder to her just beneath her inner elbow. We got to the main check in counter and thankfully there was a priced size chart front and center. For a quarter sized piece, it was fifty bucks. I could do that for mine. Cass went right for the hundred-dollar piece that would be about the length of a dollar bill and the width of a hand. We gave our desired tattoo locations and paid before we were directed to a brightly lit sitting area.

The chairs were worn mismatched leather office chairs broken up by side tables covered in various stickers and mod-podged with candy wrappers. A few of the artist's look-books and large bowls of condoms were placed as centerpieces for the tables. Charming.

Strewn about the room in an "I Spy" book meets Cracker Barrel gallery style were many sculptures, knick-knacks, bobbles, posters, and paintings. Cassidy took a few steps forward to lean in and peer into a clear glass lamp-jar that had a bunch of beanie babies squished into it. She began pointing and tapping the glass at a more realistic sitting black bear plush. "I used to have this one when I was little! He was my favorite." she smiled sweetly before standing and sauntering my direction and took a seat in one of those chairs.