WARNING: TOA SPOILERS!
Ether Tattoo. My business, my pride and joy. Customers had never left unhappy. I was in charge of it all, of course, but my other artists were great. Gary, Savvy, Willa, and Gage. We were like a family at this point, spending a lot of our time together and having fun while doing it.
It was a quiet day, which was normal for Tuesdays. Savvy was working on a design for a customer, a bear with two cubs with a little quote underneath. Willa and Gage were chatting in the breakroom, eating their lunch. Gary was in the process of doing a tattoo, a bouquet of flowers. I was working on organizing our system at our front desk, sorting our appointments and ordering necessary items.
I heard the *ding* of a bell, meaning someone had opened the door to the shop. I turned, and saw a girl. She had brown hair, and green... no, blue... no, agh whatever eyes. She looked sad, though I'm not sure why. She approached my desk.
"What can I do for you, miss?" I asked her sweetly.
"Do you have any availability at the moment, ma'am?" She questioned.
"You bet we do! I'll just need to see some ID and have you fill out a form." I responded, handing the form to her.
She filled it out quickly and handed me her completed form and ID. Piper McLean. 18 years old. She looked a little on the younger side, so I'm glad that she's actually old enough to get the tattoo. "Here you go!"
"So, what are you looking to get today?" I replied.
She dug into her purse and pulled out a simple drawing of a lightning bolt. There were notes written alongside it. Seven sides. Gold or yellow inside. Purple outline. About 3" tall. Not too wide. Right ankle.
"This shouldn't take too long." I stated, giving her a warm smile. "In fact, I'll do it for you."
"Great!" she said, a small smile creeping onto her face. "Do I need to place down a deposit or anything? I'll tell you upfront that I'm willing to pay however much it'll be, no matter the cost."
"I can tell this is important to you." I responded. "I don't need a deposit, no. Let's work on making sure this design is perfect for you, and I'll make up a stencil and get started. Follow me!"
We walked back to my workstation together, and sat together at my drawing desk.
"Is this your first tattoo?" I asked.
"Yep." She replied, "It's really important to me. I have some friends visiting next week, and they might get matching ones."
"I'll make sure to hold onto your design, then." I said, smiling. "Is there anything you want changed up, smoothed out, or adjusted? Or do you just want to discuss colors?"
"I'm fine with keeping it true to this drawing." She said, her voice cracking, "It's really meaningful to me."
"Ah, I get it." I stated, standing up to grab a couple ink bottles to show her. "Must have to do with something extra special. I've got a great gold color and a pretty, deep purple."
"Those are absolutely perfect." She exclaimed, the small smile slowly creeping back onto her face.
"Great," I said, then gestured over to the bed/bench that I had customers lay on for their tattoos "I'll get the design copied onto a stencil and be right back. Feel free to sit on the bench over there."
I quickly made a copy of the sheet of paper and made a stencil, then went back over to the girl.
"I'll do a placement, and you tell me if you like the location." I told her. "If you don't like where I put the stencil, I'll make a new one for you."
She presented her right ankle to me, and I went through the process to sanitize it. I placed down the stencil on her ankle, and carefully peeled it off.
"What do you think?" I asked.
"Perfect." She said, her hands covering her mouth. "It's gonna look amazing."
"I have to do some prep before I get started, but I'll tell you when I start." I said, beginning to prep with cleaning supplies, ink, and gloves. "So, if you're willing to share, what's the significance behind your tattoo?"
"It's in honor of... a friend." She replied, her eyes beginning to well up. "He was incredibly close to me, and he died, and I've wanted this for a while. He used to doodle this on all of his papers."
"That's incredibly sweet." I replied, giving her a warm smile and wishing I could give her a comforting hug while finishing up the prep. "I just know he's watching over you."
"I'd like to think so." She said, wiping a tear away from her face. "I miss him a lot."
"I'll make sure to make it look great." I responded. "Just relax, and let me know if you're in too much pain. Also, let me know if you feel like you're going to pass out or anything. Gary had one pass out just the other day, but that's because he forgot to eat a good meal beforehand."
Piper chuckled and whispered to herself, "Piper, just relax."
I got to work on the tattoo, and was done in about half an hour. I put a bandage on it, clear Plexaderm. Piper looked like she was almost asleep. "I'm finished."
"You are?" she asked, sitting up. "Oh my gods, it's amazing!"
"I'm glad you like it." I said, smiling. "I'm just gonna charge you the minimum amount, since it's a small tattoo."
"Thank you so much!" she exclaimed, a large smile spreading across her face.
I lead her up to the front desk to do payment, and I made a file for her to hold onto the design and for our personal records.
I was having her put her card in the card reader when I heard the *ding* of our door.
My wife, walked in with our son, Asa, in tow. He was almost two years old, and my pride and joy much like this place.
"Cool tattoo!" Asa yelled, pointing towards Piper's ankle. "Lightning!"
He did his little, innocent toddler smile, and she gave him a bigger smile. There was a twinkle in her eye, like she was reminiscing or reminded of something.
"Feel free to stop by next time you want a tattoo, or whenever your friends come into town." I said as Piper took her card out of the card reader and I handed her the tattoo aftercare instructions.
"I definitely will." She replied, a grin on her face. She put her card back in her purse and turned to leave.
Before she had the chance to leave, Asa ran over and hugged her leg.
"Asa!" my wife, Leah, exclaimed. "We don't grab strangers!"
"It's okay." Piper said, leaning down and ruffling his hair. "This little dude seems very sweet. And luckily, he didn't hug my freshly tattooed ankle."
Leah swooped over and picked up Asa. Piper tapped Asa's nose and exclaimed "Boop!", before turning to me, saying "Thank you so much!"
She walked out the door happily, and Asa waved as she left.
"Why'd you guys decide to visit?" I asked Leah, giving her a hug.
"It was Asa's idea." Leah replied, "He always wants to see Mommy at work."
"Well, I'm glad you visited." I said, pinching Asa's cheeks. "I'm always excited to see you guys."
Somehow, I don't exactly how, I felt that there was a cosmic reason that Asa and Leah came today. Asa is usually pretty shy, but he ran up and gave that girl's leg a big hug. Fate is a very interesting thing.
Sorry that it's taken me forever to put this out! Now that school is back I don't have as much time to do much writing for fun. I'll likely post periodically, especially when I get inspiration. I'm not gonna adhere to any schedule, though. All I can say is that I may be able to post more in winter. I wrote this chapter because I have two tattoos, and I think tattoos are super duper cool. Let me know what you think.
(Also, for some reason I've recently been SUPER obsessed with the soundtrack from the TLT musical. Anyone else?)
-Meg