by L. L. Ash
My yearning to get back to work ended up being the thing that really pushed me over the edge though. I heard those machines buzzing in the background and my heart ached to be the one back there creating art instead of standing bored at the front counter, waiting for walk-ins.
I typed up an ad for a receptionist, knowing I could do all the managing while I still tattooed, then sent it off into the big bad web.
Finally… I waited.
Fae
I couldn’t freaking stop thinking about him.
Everything I saw reminded me of him in some way, and it was starting to drive me nuts. I’d met him once, spent a grand total of less than an hour with the guy, and still I couldn’t get him out of my head.
My brain always flashed that smile, part devilish, part sweet, and the smoldering intensity in his eyes still burned me days later. I thought about going to the tattoo parlor again, but I hesitated. What reason did I have to go there? I’d just go up to him and say, ‘so I missed you. I wanted to see you so I’m stalking your workplace like a crazy bitch’.
Pretty sure that wouldn’t go over well.
So, an idea started formulating in my head, and I considered it...and considered it...and considered it.
Mom and Dad would kill me, but if I did it, I’d be smart about it.
“Fae, you only live once, and it’s only a matter of time before your parents get tired of breakups and just give you a fucking arranged marriage,” Josie told me, being oh-so helpful, as usual.
“I know, but it’s permanent!” I reasoned.
“Nobody will see it!” she reasoned back.
“But it’s on my skin. Like… someone will see it eventually.”
“Yeah, probably your arranged spouse. Just go for it girl! Live that life! You want to bang the super hot tattoo guy? Go bang him! Seriously! And you have to get the tattoo on your boob. Make him stare at that baby forever. Good luck getting him to not want to bang you.”
She had a point.
“But...it’s my boob!”
“Get a flower or something. Those things are super popular. It’s even kind of feminine now-days.”
“Oh God...Isn’t it kind of desperate, Jo? You were supposed to talk me out of this!”
“If you wanted someone to talk you out of it, you’d have called Cam. You want to do this, and I’m going to be there for you girl. You bang that maybe-metal-studded penis!”
I pressed my head into my hands, equal parts grateful and annoyed for having a friend like Josie.
“Today. Go right now, Fae. Go right now before you change your mind. I’m not joking. Just get like a flower or something.”
“But...but what about when I wear dresses and things...like...low cut dresses.”
“You never wear low cut dresses babe. GO!”
She hung up on me before I could complain more.
So, instead of fighting, I grabbed my keys and headed south towards his shop.
I made it there way too quickly. I needed more time to prepare myself…
Swallowing my guts back down into my stomach, I took a deep breath as I walked into the parlor again, not even a week after I had his hands between my legs.
Roman was at the front again, hand on a mouse, looking through something on the computer monitor in front of him, head to head with another guy with a black, wide brimmed hat and long, dark hair.
“How’s it going?” he asked just before taking his eyes off the screen and looking up.
His eyes widened for just a moment in what I assumed was recognition.
“Fae,” he said, his voice cracking.
It was so freaking adorable.
Evidently the man knew how to be insufferably hot and adorable.
“It’s me again,” I shrugged, giving him my best cute and innocent face.
“Everything ok with the piercing?” he asked, his voice strong and deep again, concern in his eyes.
“Oh, yeah. I hardly even feel it,” I admitted, my face heating up.
His lips turned up in a bit of a smirk as his head tilted to the side.
“What do you need, then?” he hummed. “Decide to take me up on those nipple piercings?”
Oh God…
Whew...Ok, Fae. You can do this...
“Close. I want a tattoo.”
“A tattoo?” his eyebrows shot up, and I didn’t miss the way his eyes roved from my head to my toes and back again.
I didn’t look like a tattoo type of girl, especially with my designer jeans and two piece sweater set.
I should have worn something sexier… Crap… Mortification overload.
Josie was going to kill me, but at least I’d remembered to wear a sexy bra.
“Ok. What of, and where?” he asked, leaning forward on the counter, towards me.
“I want a...”
I paused.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted, until I looked up and to the left of his head. A beautiful butterfly flying into the sky hung on the wall, decidedly noble and feminine. Butterflies represented freedom to me. The one thing I didn’t have.
“A butterfly,” I whispered finally. “Beneath my breast.”
“Beneath your...” he started, then turned to the screen again…
I finally noticed the guy standing beside Roman staring at us, alternately watching Roman, then me as we spoke.
“Why don’t you take it, Rome,” the man said. “You’re always dying to get the gun back in your hands. It’s slow. I’ll watch the counter for a little while.”
The guy was smirking, unabashed as Roman bit the end of a pen.
“You sure?” he asked the guy.
“Go for it. You could use the company of a pretty girl, anyway.”
Roman moved around the guy, not even looking back as he approached me.
“So, what kind of butterfly? How big?”
I pointed to the underside of my left breast, then gave him a circle the size of a half dollar with my thumb and forefinger.
“I don’t know what kind. Isn’t that your job?”
He laughed.
“This your first?” he asked, sweeping his honey blond hair back into his top knot.
“It is,” I nodded, feeling like a baby in the shop's den of seasoned tattooers.
“Ok, well go ahead and sit down. Give me five minutes.”
He headed behind a dividing wall and I sat down in the plush, black velvet couch near the door.
“Your name’s Fae?” the man asked me as I waited.
“That’s right,” I nodded, smiling.
“Very unique name. I’m Freddie, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you.” I gave him a little wave like a duface.
“So you were in here earlier?” he asked now.
“Yeah. Roman gave me a piercing,” I admitted, gulping.
Please don’t ask any more questions… Please don’t ask any more questions…
“Cool, well we like to see repeat customers.” He smiled back at me, the smirk still residing just south of the dimple in his left cheek.
I just smiled awkwardly back, then sighed gratefully when Roman reappeared from behind the wall and waved me over.
“How about this?” he asked, holding up a paper with an itty-bitty butterfly, its majestic wings fluttering almost mid-flight on the paper.
“It’s beautiful,” I admitted, breathless.
“This would look sick on your sternum, but if you’re dedicated to your rib, we’ll do that. Should be done in about an hour.”
I gulped. That’s it? I’d only get an hour with him for putting something so monumental on my body?
“H-how long will the sternum one take? What would it look like?”
He bit the inside of his cheek.
“About this big,” he motioned with his hands, making an oval roughly the size of a grapefruit.
I know. A grapefruit isn’t oval. Get over it.
“C-can I see it?” I managed to stumble out of my mouth.
Only problem
was...WHAT THE HELL WAS I SAYING?!
“Sure. Give me twenty minutes and I’ll draw something up for you. You like diamonds?”
I nodded.
“Lace?”
I nodded again.
“Ok. Twenty minutes. Get a coffee or something, or you can wait on the sofa out there.”
I retreated back out the door, unwilling to have another awkward minute with Mr. Twenty-Questions.
Dialing Josie backup on my phone, I put it to my ear with shaking hands.
“Sup Beotch!” she answered.
“You need to remind me why I’m doing this,” I blurted out to her. “He convinced me to do this whole like...big piece on my sternum… I’m freaking out!”
She just laughed at me.
“You think of that giant, metal-studded penis, girl. Mmm! That’s what you’re fighting for right now. You need a fling and that man will be the perfect appetizer. Maybe he’ll even give you a happy ending! You should have him check that piercing, just to be sure it’s looking good. Make sure he gets his hands all in there...”
“Oh my God! You’re the worst friend ever!” I whisper shouted. “And your advice sucks!”
Laughing again, she hung up.
So, I dialed Cambria.
“Sup girl,” was her answer, her voice sounding bored.
“Cam… I did something stupid...”
“Uh-oh,” she hummed, her voice shifting to amused. “What’d you do?”
“I might have gone back to the tattoo parlor with that really hot guy that I wanna bone, and I’m getting a tattoo but the one I guess I’m getting is like huge and it’s going to hurt and my mom and dad will find out and I’m scared!”
Evidently it was Cambria’s turn to laugh at me.
“Let me guess, Josie talked you into it?”
“Maybe?” I half admitted.
“You are such an idiot, girl!” she hollered. “Go get that damn tattoo! Your parents won’t find out if you put it in a place they won’t see.”
“It’s under my boobs,” I whispered.
“Good! Make him stare at those perky little puppies for a few hours, then ask him on a date.”
“Oh my God! Am I really doing this?” I cried out.
“You’re really doing this.”
“You guys are the best and the worst friends in the world.”
“I know. Now go!”
She hung up on me, too. Evidently they were more alike than I realized.
Sighing, I headed back into the shop.
Freddie was facing the computer screen after glancing at me and giving me a tilt of the head. I waited maybe two or three minutes before Roman peeked around the corner again.
“C’mon,” he nodded at me and I headed back again.
He had a significantly bigger paper in his hands in the shape of an upside down triangle.
“So this is your other option,” he told me, holding out the paper to me.
If I’d thought the first one was beautiful, this one was absolutely gorgeous! There was a sexy butterfly nestled in the middle of what almost looked like a strip of lace that curved slightly upward until it made points at the sides. Underneath, the lace was dripping with lines of beads or pearls, one fat diamond dripping off the downward point under the butterfly.
“Goes like this,” he said, holding it up to himself, just lined up under the outline of his impressive pecs.
I bit my lip.
It was gorgeous, but it was also big.
“You think I could manage it?” I asked him. “It’s my first one.”
“You should be alright. It is a rib tat though...they are more painful than others. I mean, it’s up to you. We can go smaller if you feel more comfortable with that.”
I stared at the piece in his hand, then glanced down at the butterfly sitting on the desk.
“How about we try them both on, see what you think?” he asked.
“How do you try on a tattoo?” I asked nervously.
“Stencils,” he grinned. “I already prepped both of them. Just lift up your shirt and you can see them and how they look.”
I did as he asked, pulling up my sweater set to expose my ribs. I stopped just under my bra.
“So the little one would go about here, right?” he asked, shifting to my side and holding up the paper on my ribs, just under my breast.
“Oh, that’s cute!” I couldn’t help my grin.
“Mhm.” He nodded, then got the larger piece, pressing it against my ribs and sliding his finger up to lift the shirt up just a little more between my breasts, catching my bra and lifting that too about an inch.
“It’d go right here,” he adjusted the piece until it laid flat on my ribs.
It looked...stunning.
“It’s really...sexy,” was what I blurted instead of flattering his artistry.
“You can pull it off,” was his off-handed compliment.
My heart was thudding in my chest.
His hands were right next to my boobs, and I was overwhelmed with the idea of doing something so brazen…
“Ok,” popped out of my mouth instead of an adamant no.
“Awesome!” He rewarded me with a warm grin, removing his hands from me before straightening and waving for me to follow him.
“We’ll go back to the room we were in last time,” he said over his shoulder as we passed two other tattoo artists working on other people in the seats in front of them.
Nobody looked like they were in significant pain, so that was something.
Chapter Three
Fae
He led me through, into the room we’d occupied days before.
Setting the paper down, he got on the stool and started pulling out some things from the set of metal tool drawers nearby then placed it all on the table he’d used before when piercing me. Meanwhile, I unbuttoned my sweater, then stood there in the sleeveless tank, sweater in my hands.
“Where do you want me?” I asked him, feeling the double meaning straight between my legs.
“Go ahead and just chill for a sec. I gotta get this station all set up real quick, then we’ll get the stencil on you.”
“Ok,” I nodded at his back, watching him work, hands almost a blur of activity.
A couple minutes later he turned around and set a large-ish towel over the body of the seat, then looked at me.
“So, typically I ask anyone getting a chest or sternum tattoo to strip down, but it’s your choice. We can try to do it around the bra but no promises. We might have to strip it anyway.”
I nodded, gulping.
My heart was still pounding, and the room was suddenly ten degrees warmer.
“Ok, should I just...” I started and he nodded, turning back to the table.
I watched for a moment, seeing him folding some paper towel squares and ex-ing tape across them.
“Ready?” he asked.
I hurriedly got the tank off, then unhooked the back of my bra, still holding the lacy cups to my chest.
“You can put these over your nips, for modesty’s sake,” he told me, handing me the two makeshift pasties before heading to the door again. “I’ll give you a minute...”
“Can you help me?” I blurted out, my eyes widening.
“Uh...help you?” He lifted an eyebrow.
“M-my hands are shaking… I’m so nervous… I’m sure I’ll do it wrong.”
“Sure?” he asked a little confused, then pointed to the chair.
Plopping on it, I still gripped my bra to my chest.
“Do you want to just try with the bra on and see if it works?” he asked, lifting his gaze from my bra to my eyes.
“I’m sure,” I said finally, throwing a big F-you to the world and peeling back the cups of my bra.
Bare boobs out in the open, my nipples immediately puckered against the chilled air, and he just quickly slapped those paper towel and tape pasties on before moving to the table and grabbing the trace paper.
He made it back to me, completely u
nphased by my naked chest and quickly wet, and then positioned the stencil, peeling it back and leaving a purple outline for him to follow.
“Do you want any color on this, or just black and grey?” he asked, assessing if it was straight.
Holy hell? What was the point of having perky boobs if they couldn’t even distract a hot guy?
“Uh, maybe some purple, or red.”
“I can do both,” he told me, fingering the lines before seeming satisfied and moving back.
“Ok,” I squeaked.
“Now, what do ya think?” he asked, motioning to the full length mirror on one side of the wall.
I looked, and sure enough, it was even prettier on me than on the paper.
“Oh wow,” I touched the little lines, acquainting myself with what was about to become a permanent part of me.
“Do you like it?” he asked, folding his arms over his chest as he stood next to me. “We can still do the little butterfly like what you originally wanted.”
“No. It’d look plain compared to this,” I admitted.
“I don’t know why, but when you said you wanted a butterfly under your breasts, this was immediately what I thought of. I’m glad you like it. You just don’t seem like a tattoo girl.”
He waved me over to the chair and I sat on it, butt first before laying back, mostly bare boobs in the air.
“I’m not,” I admitted. “At least, I never thought I was until the other night when we came here...It made me feel so... different.”
“There’s something charmingly homey about this place.” He smiled that warm smile at me, his hair dropping over his forehead again as he leaned down over me.
“Yeah, I guess there is.” I smiled back, caught in time for a minute, trapped in his eyes.
“Well, I’m flattered that you came back so soon.”
“Yeah… You were so good last time… I felt comfortable around you,” I admitted, feeling another blush coming up my cheeks.
There was that smile again.
“Well thank you very much. I pride myself in being professional and making my clients happy and comfortable.”
He pulled some black gloves on and grabbed his tattoo gun, positioning himself and the table so that he could move between me and it easily.
