It had taken her a few months since the last artist she went to ghosted her, but finally Y/n was here. In front of a new studio with a consultation appointment for her first tattoo.
To say she was nervous wouldn't be enough, her hands were fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, and she kept glancing at the time on her phone, that being the only thing she seemed to keep a focus on.
Her appointment was at 1:30, and it was currently 1:15. She was sat in her car, radio turned up loud enough to simmer her anxiety slightly. She had planned to go in at 1:25 but was feeling awkward just sitting in their parking lot. The building was sleek, and black. It wasn't too large but she could see inside through her mirrors.
The walls were almost completely glass, with curtains drawn to the side and letting the natural sunlight in. She could see a few people inside, a few standing by the front desk, and one or two clients being tattooed.
Her head was dizzy, only two more minutes to wait. If she would've known the studio was practically a glass box she would've parked down the road, and only driven up now. Hopefully nobody would comment on the strange girl who sat in the car so long instead of just going in early.
Y/n sucked in a breath, tucking her keys and phone in her pocket and deciding to head inside. No one ever got a bad rep for being slightly early, right?
The door gave a slight jingle when she pushed it open, catching the attention of everyone inside. The artists tattooing turned away just as quickly and continued on with their work. Hesitatingly Y/n stepped up to the desk, infront of two of the men who worked there.
"Welcome to Bangtan Ink, how can we help you?" One of them spoke up. He had red hair, a baggy yellow sweater and some black sweatpants. His smile was friendly which put her nerves at ease.
"I'm here for a consultation, my name is Y/n L/n.." Even her tone sounded stupid to her. She was a grown adult and here she was speaking like a scared child. She rung her hands together infront of her, fidgeting slightly but thankful the desk hid it from the two she spoke with.
The man nodded, typing something in on the computer and signaling to wait just a moment.
"Right, Jimin will be out in a moment to help you. Did you have an idea of what you were looking for?" Y/n nodded at the dyed red head.
"I wanted a.. dragon.. wrapping around my arm.." She didn't think it was a bad idea. She thought it was probably super basic, and she'd done her homework on tattoos so she even knew what type of style or vibe she'd be opened too.
None of that helped her nerves when the two visibly raised their eyebrows.
"Is this your first tattoo?" The other man spoke up. He was taller, his hair was black and he wore a long sleeve white shirt that showed off his wide shoulders and some black pressed pants that looked more expensive than a pair of pants should look like.
His tone wasn't judgmental, just curious which was probably expected.
Y/n nodded. "Yes.. I've been wanting it for a while though." As if that would be enough to convince them that she had any sense of knowledge to what she was doing.
The two nodded and pointed to a seat infront where she could wait for her artist to come out.
It didn't even feel like a minute had passed when another man came out from the back, styled blond hair and a white button up, along with black skinny jeans. He had jewelry hanging around his wrists and neck that sent a glare when hit by the sun, but overall seemed friendly and easy going.
"Y/n?" He questioned, walking up to her. Nodding, Y/n stood up and the two shook hands.
"Cool, I'm Jimin. So what were you looking to get and where?" He led her to his station while asking. His station was beside one of the other artists tattooing a mans bicep. Taking a glance, Y/n could see the start of a metal cyberpunk esc. tattoo. It looked good for only seeming half way done.
The artist was focused, not even turning to her and Jimin when they stepped up. His slightly faded orange hair did well to bring out his dark eyes. And although he wore a simple green shirt and brown velvety pants, him like all the others looked like a model.
Y/n sat down infront of Jimin, and slipped off her jacket, revealing a black halter strapped shirt that complimented her graffiti styled jeans well.
She explained her idea to him, showing him her right arm and where she'd like the tattoo to start and end.
Jimin nodded along, throwing in a few questions here and there to grasp a bit more of what Y/n was looking for. He made a few suggestions and within minutes, the two had sorted out what the basis of the tattoo would be.
"This is your first tattoo right?" Y/n nodded, feeling that slightly nervous feeling bubbling up in her chest again.
"What I suggest, is that once it's all drawn that we take it slow and see how you handle the pain. The arm usually isn't too bad, but there will be a few spots that definitely aren't fun." Y/n nodded, thankful for the calm demeanor and soothing tone Jimin held. She was happy this wasn't as scary as she thought it would be.
"That sounds good. Do you have a rough estimate of how much it'll cost?" She was prepared for it to be fairly costly. She was basically getting a full sleeve and this studio did good work, and everyone knew good tattoos were rarely ever cheap.
Jimin looked at her strangely for a second before giving an estimate. "Depending on how long it takes, I'd say you'll be paying a minimum of eight hundred but it'll probably be a little more honestly."
She nodded once again, already putting enough away for an expensive tattoo.
"Alright, when can I book it?"
Jimin thought this was too good to be true. A client who knew what they wanted, didn't badger him on the price, was polite, and seemingly going through with booking? The only catch seemed to be that this would be the first tattoo, but as long as she didn't squirm every five seconds she was practically a perfect client.
The luck he drew made him question if she was a plant set up by one of the guys which he wouldn't put past them. Regardless he smiled and pulled up his bookings.
"I have a spot open this Thursday at noon, would that work?"
Y/n agreed, more excited than ever that she was finally doing this. "That's perfect, thank you" She felt like her cheeks would probably fall off if she kept smiling like this too long.
While Jimin was booking her in, having her sign a digital contract on his iPad, Taehyung was slowly loosing his patience with his own client.
His day hadn't begun the best. First he had a no-show, then he had someone reschedule his evening appointment to early tomorrow morning.
Finally, to top it off, his current walk in client was a complete asshole.
He fussed over the design so much Taehyung was surprised he still wanted a tattoo after an hour of back and forth. Following, he kept moving. Normal moving Taehyung was fine with, the occasional spasm or jerk was common with everyone. What wasn't normal or fine was yanking away after every line and making obscene comments under the breath as if Tae was deaf.
But Taehyung could deal with that, it was apart of the job sometimes and this wouldn't be his first annoying client. Something he couldn't handle was that on top of all of this, now the man was making comments about Jimins' new client that made bile rise up in Tae's throat.
"Alright, that's it. I'm done." He practically growled out, slamming his machine down and almost dumping his ink everywhere.
He caught the attention of almost everyone in the studio and it only stayed that way when he started to clean his station up, and wrap up the mans arm.
"The fuck you mean you're done? There's still half of it to do!" Jimin shot Tae a look, his clients' eyes had gone wide and she looked between the two with a slightly worried expression.
"Come back in a few weeks and if you can keep your mouth shut we can finish." He was definitely taking it easy on the man, he didn't want to scare away Jimins new client knowing he'd definitely be pissed at him if so.
"Come on man, pay and get out. You've already been told." A new voice spoke up.
Y/n's eyes found a tall man standing to the side, stepping to the man and helping him stand up.
His hair was pushed back blonde and he was dressed in a brown sweater and white pants. Y/n began to wonder if the workers all doubled as models during their free time, she'd never seen this many good looking people in one spot before.
The man begrudgingly followed the blonde to the front, paying quickly and storming out. Luckily for everyone else he didn't make anymore of a fuss and things were dealt with surprisingly quickly.
"Yah, Taehyung in the back." The blonde motioned with his hand and disappeared as quickly as he showed up.
Jimin chuckled, getting smacked in the head by Tae as he walked by. "Shut up or I'll bring you down with me."
Jimin rolled his eyes, "I'm Joons' favorite! You wouldn't be able too!"
He chuckled before turning back to Y/n, finalizing her appointment and confirming everything was set up correctly.
"Alright, excuse the interruption." He smiled, as if that could erase the nerves Y/n had.
"We do require a minimum deposit of a hundred dollars, it does go towards the end total as long as you don't no-show. To re-schedule we also need a prior notice."
That made sense to Y/n, and everything she had read online about it had at least prepared her for this part. "No problem, do I pay at the desk?"
Jimin confirmed, the two walking over while he input everything down. Although before he could ring her up he was called into the back and directed another man to finish everything.
It was another new face for Y/n. This man was shorter than the last few, around the same height as Jimin. He had white hair and wore a baggy sweater with bleach splatter scattered on it paired with black stylized sweatpants.
"Cash or card?" His tone was plain but his voice was surprisingly deep.
"Card please." He nodded, punched in a few more buttons, then turned the machine to Y/n while she inserted her card. Once approved flashed across the screen she took her card back and put it away in her wallet.
"Receipt?" He asked, Y/n nodded again and placed it in her pocket.
"Is that everything then?" The man nodded and with that Y/n left and was once again sat back in her car, just the same as thirty minutes previously.
This was a good thing, she thought to herself. She was finally doing something for herself and the consultation had gone better than she'd expected, aside from the one man becoming enraged.
After taking a deep breath she started her car and headed home. Thursday was two days away so she had two days to prepare mentally. That should be more than enough time.
--
"What happened this time?" Namjoon questioned Taehyung while the two settled into some seats in the back office.
Taehyung let out a sigh, glaring at the wall.
"The guy was an asshole, couldn't take it anymore." He hissed out, arms waving in front of his face as if trying to dismiss everything that had just happened.
Namjoon rolled his eyes. "Well I don't think slamming your machine down did much to help."
Normally Namjoon wouldn't really care, he trusted the others word and knew from past experience that if someone managed to anger Tae this much it wasn't for no reason. Still, with how slow the business was going for the tattoo shop they couldn't afford to scare away potential clients.
"Take it to the back next time someone new is here, we lose this cover and we'll really be screwed."
Jimin stood to the side, watching the interaction silently. "What set you off anyway? He seemed like an asshole after you stenciled his arm the fifth time."
Taehyung threw his head back, eyes landing on Jimin briefly.
"He was critiquing my tattoo ability and then started saying sexist shit when your client came in. It was disgusting, even for me. Just lost my temper."
And after his explanation the other two dropped the subject. They recognized how deeply Taehyung was affected by those type of men in the past, and truth be told they would've done the same thing if they were in his position.
"Alright, cool off a bit back here then go clean up your station Tae."