The Way Love Changes You; Book One: Love's Firsts

31/XXXI: Promise Tattoos

"I apologize for being uncultured. I promise I won't do it again." There's always a time to make a comeback.

That made her wheeze.

"One day, I'll show you what Grease is," she said. "You'll regret ever not knowing what it is. In my senior year of high school, we would have spirit week. One of those days of the week was us dressing up as whatever decade we preferred. A lot of girls in my grade dressed up as pink ladies! Back then, I didn't know what it was until I got to see it myself! But that's a promise! We will watch it together one day!"

I became interested. "Oh, it's a movie?"

"Yes! You're gonna love it! Trust me!" Indy then looked at her phone to peek at the time. "Oh, fuck, Avellana, we gotta go, or we'll be late! Ride with me! I know where it is!"

I gave her my okay, then we headed out to the tattoo shop.

~❦~

One song-filled car ride later and we made it with seven minutes to spare. "Moonlight Tattery" was the name. We went inside to confirm our appointment, but the person who was standing at the front desk was a very gorgeous black woman with short neon green hair who looked like she was in her early 30s. She was covered in tattoos. She was living my dream, and apparently Indy's as well, seeing as how she was fascinated.

"Hey, Welcome to Moonlight Tattery! My name's Rhyan. Y'all have an appointment today?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's two under Indy Love!"

Rhyan checked the computer to find our appointment, which didn't take long at all. "Awesome! So, since there are two different appointments, would y'all like to get tattoos done by two separate artists, or would y'all like to go one at a time under the same person?"

I held Indy by her waist. "We'll do it under one person, but I'll go first since I've got them done before. This is my girlfriend's first time getting a tattoo, and I'd like to be by her side when she's getting it done."

Rhyan was touched by what I said. "Well, to make things better for you guys, I'll be doing your tattoos today. Been tattooing for 12 years now, so I always want to make sure that my clients, especially my new ones, are comfortable and in good caring hands. Are there any tattoos in particular that y'all would like to have?"

Indy reached into her little bag and took out a sheet of paper with our design on it. "My girlfriend and I agreed on getting this one on our left forearms. I came up with it myself."

Rhyan took the paper. "Y'all came prepared with the design backwards. I like that! And matching tattoos, at that. That's very precious. Come with me, let's chat over here in the waiting area."

As we sat down, she sat beside Indy, assuming that she was gonna give a rundown as to what basically goes on in the process of getting a tattoo. "So, I'm sure that your girlfriend is aware, so I will tell you, Indy, that what I will do is create a stencil of this design. It helps with accuracy, sizing, and detail. This is a very easy but very useful method for many tattoo artists worldwide, and I want this very first tattoo to look good on your skin. I'm mainly a freehand artist, but since you're a first-time tattoo client, I don't want to mess it up for you.

"Tattoos are permanent, but I'm sure that you're okay with that since you're here. There is a way of taking it off, but I would definitely recommend going to a licensed doctor to get it done. It'll be a lot less painful that way. I want your first experience to be a great one, then maybe you'll want to get more in the future. Your girlfriend will be right by your side the whole time to make sure that you're okay. I also want you to know that we do not reuse our needles here. We always use disposable needles. I'll open my packs in front of you to ensure that. We do care about our clients, and we don't want to harm you in any kind of way. We always want our customers to leave happy and healthy."