New Years Ink

[needleandink]

Adrian learned very early in his career that the best way to avoid starting off the new year dealing with pissed off people was to stop work by ten on New Years Eve. And by stop work, he meant door shut, lights off, and a huge "not a chance" sign on the door.

Even his usual system of capturing inebriated clients clearly requesting whatever drunken ideas they thought fabulous while wearing beer goggles didn't seem to help on New Years Day. Nope. Instead, he closed up and spent the night ringing in the new year in a much better way, to his mind anyway.

Which is why he was able to open the shop at ten on new years day, put out the sign offering ten percent off all new ink, and settle at the counter with coffee and a smile.

Comments

[starsfallen]

"Mmmm." Corry is barely listening, flipping through his art and trying to picture it interlayed with her own skin. "Maybe the inside of my wrist? Can you do something small there?" She wants it where she can see it, small, subtle, but forever a reminder to be true to herself. She will not allow herself to be so lost again. "I'm not worried about pain." She's caused enough, she may as well feel it.

[needleandink]

The woman wouldn't be the first masochist to come through the doors, and wouldn't be the last, but Adrian didn't get that kind of vibe off of her. Regardless, it wasn't down to him to psychoanalyze the whys of tattooing his customers. His job was to make sure they were informed, plusses and minuses, and take them through the process from ink to aftercare and send them on their way.

"I can do that. Do you have a design in mind, or do you want me to leave you with the books for a while to look without me hanging over your shoulder while you do so?"

[starsfallen]

"Actually, I was thinking about this one." She points to a delicately inked mermaid with flowing red hair like her own (http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/007/9/a/mermaid_tattoo_by_tarafleming-d5qrcle.jpg). And what truer way can she convey a reminder to be herself than that of the siren form she only so recently learned to control. In fact, doing so was the first time she'd truly felt in control since she'd left rehab.

"But some gold in her tail. And - the scales should extend and curl with the curves of her chest. It seems more natural." More natural being more true to true siren forms of reality and outside of sexualized fantasies - or at least true to her own siren form and those she's seen of others. Around the chest the scales lessen and shift, mixing with skin until there are mere traces as they reach the neck and beyond. "You can leave off the shell and hair decoration - I want her to look free. But can you do the background as a star? Just plain and yellow?"

[needleandink]

Adrian looked at the image, mentally tweaking it the way she indicated. "If you want this small and on your wrist, you're going to lose some of the detail, unless you're looking to carry her from wrist to forearm."

He picked up her hand and turned it over, tracing the area the ink would cover, from wrist to nearly her elbow. There wasn't anything overly sensual about it, his touch was more like a doctor's examination. "I'd pick somewhere else for a design like this, like your back, down from shoulder along the scapula, she should be free to spread her fins, her hair, without being cramped into a small space."