Back to work

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel was one of only two people working; a slow Tuesday night. The other person had a client who was having full sleeves done, so she was off inking him right now, and Gabriel was manning the desk. Which, technically speaking, wasn't his job, but the person who was supposed to be doing it today was the one getting their sleeves done. So Gabriel stared at the pop art tattoos lining the walls for those too uncreative to choose their own design, and re-sterilised the body jewlery and sat around boredly, wanting something to pierce or tattoo.

All in all, it was not the best first day back at work after moving. He had been excited before his shift, getting dressed in his usual colourful fare and doing his hair perfectly. He was even wearing his favourite lip stud. And all for naught. So far there had been precisely two customers since his shift started; a regular, wanting to confirm the appointment for Gabriel to finish his shoulder piece next week, and a teenage girl wanting her ears pierced. Nothing really exciting. He was sitting behind the counter, flipping through his fonts book for the millionth time, when the door bell tinkled, signalling that someone had entered the parlour.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

Sarah had, had a very long day. After giving lessons to her little niece, and doing more decorating, she had wasted her Tuesday away. She decided that now would be a time to stop in on Gabriel and talk about her tattoo. She had wanted one since she had turned 16, but she was unable to get one. Now she was on her own, and old enough to get one without parental consent. She got out of her sweat pants, and then into her coolest Lolita dress. She fixed her hair into high pig-tails, and left the house.

By the time she reached the tattoo shop, her feet were killing her. She loved her shoes, but they hurt her feet. She entered the shop with a smile, and walked up to the desk where Gabriel was. "Hiya."

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel looked up as a pretty asian girl walked into the shop. It took a moment for his tired brain to figure out who she was, and by that time she had already walked up to his desk and greeted him.
"Hey!" Gabriel smiled, adjusting his hat. "Good to see you again." He smiled. "Here for the official verdict on your tattoo?"

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

"Aw am i that easy to read." She asked with a smile. "Good to see you too. How have you been?" She asked.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel laughed. "Well, it's generally what people come to tattoo studios for." He smiled, pushing aside a display of first earrings so he could speak to her easier, and pulling out a book from underneath the desk, opening it. "So, this is my example book, so you can see I'm not just some scary, unexperienced person... The very first picture is the first tattoo I ever did, which was on myself with a sewing needle and a bottle of writing ink, but all the rest are ones I've done professionally." He smiled.

"Ummm... Bored." He laughed. "First day back at work after moving was nowhere near as fun as I had hoped, though it's looking better." He smiled. "How about you?"

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She shook her head and looked at him with a smile. "I don't need to see the book, i already trust you." Sarah was naive and a very trusting person. And Gabriel, though some people might have thought he was scary because of his cloths or piercings, but she knew she could trust him. She couldn't resist the urge, so she looked at the book. "Oh wow, that's pretty good!" She said with a grin.

He said something that made her blush, and she rewound it in her head. though it's looking better. She looked at her hands and then back up. "You know, redecorating, teaching. Things along that line."

 

[Gabriel Blume]

((Oh god I just realised that 'it's looking better' thing sounded like a pickup line haha. Mega fail.))

He smiled. "Thanks. I started tattoing when I was eighteen, so I've got a fair bit of experience." He grinned. "Though..." He added, "My first few were awful." He grinned. "So what sort of scale were you thinking of? Do you mind if I look at the photo again?"

Gabriel nodded. "Sounds good." He smiled. "I won't be redecorating any time soon though... I only just moved into my flat. It's getting kinda lonely already though haha... I'm embarrassed to admit I miss my mum." He smiled, brushing his fringe back and biting his lip stud.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

((Yeah maybe a bit LOL))

"Well i was thinking full back, a mural like thing almost. Here." She unfolded the picture and handed it to him. She smiled at him as he mentioned something about missing his mom. She hadn't realized until now, but she missed her mother too. "Yeah... It's not stupid i think it's cool." She then looked at him closer. "Is that a lip ring. Oh my gosh, it's so cool!" She said.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel nodded, looking over the picture. "Sounds good... just straight from the picture, no alterations or anything?" He smiled. "Full back is easiest, because I don't have to scale it down, but adding or taking things away is no problem."

Gabriel smiled. "That's good, because I miss her like crazy." He laughed. "I had no idea how lonely living alone was until I tried it."

Gabriel nodded, bitting his lip ring out of habit. "Yeah... I got it done when I was seventeen. I used to have two, but I took one out when I was doing part time work at a supermarket awhile ago. I'm thinking of getting it redone." He smiled.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

Sarah smiled at him and nodded. "Yep, i'm just doing the original, i'm glad you guys will be able to do it though." she said. She laughed when he said he missed his mom like crazy. "Yeah, that's what it was like for me, leaving every school year, being away from my whole family."

"Well i like the sparkly one. i only have my bellybutton done." She grinned. Right now she ahd her hello kitty piercing in, but there was no way he would find that out.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel nodded. "I'll have to do a couple of preliminary sketches, but that'll only take a few minutes. In the meantime, you have to fill out these forms." He handed Sarah some forms and a pen, with health questions along the lines of the ones he had already asked; whether she was haemophilic or HIV positive, or if there was any chance she could be pregnant, as well as asking some personal details so he would be able to contact her about later appointments and the like.

He nodded when she mentioned being away for school. "I know... I hated having to go to another country entirely for so long. I wish the school here had existed when I started school."

Gabriel laughed. "I had that done for awhile, but I got a tattoo on my stomach, and it closed over while I was healing the tattoo. It kept getting caught on my clothes anyway, I don't miss it much." He grinned.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She smiled. "Well yeah i can imagine it must have sucked for a lot of kids. But i had to learn another language on top of Japanese and English." He talked about how he used to have his belly button done. "i don't know many guys who have that done."

"Okay," She walked over and wrote against the wall in her chicken scratch handwriting. She didn't want to sit down, she was to anxious now. she filled it out quickly, trying to keep her writing as legible as possible.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel nodded. "That must suck majorly. I struggle with English sometimes, I don't know how you can speak three languages." He laughed slightly.

Gabriel shrugged. "I know, it's not the most manly piercing ever... I got it done on a dare." He laughed. "My friends are very weird. I kinda miss it sometimes though... I've thought of getting it repierced a few times, but I think I'll get my lip redone first." He grinned.

While Sarah was filling out the form, Gabriel pulled some paper from under the desk and studied the photo, doing a couple of sketches of the outline, to get a feel for the wings. He then got a larger piece of paper and scaled it up, to roughly the size of Sarah's back. He did a couple of big sketches, so he could work from them for reference when he was doing the actual tattooing.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She smiled at him when she had finished. "Well i also know a little bit of everything. Latin is helpful, it is a route language after all." She put the paper on the desk, away from what he was doing. "That's really amazing, i don't see how you can do it!" She said. She was a decent artisit, but she wasn't even close to this good.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel nodded. "That's incredible. I fail languages." He grinned slightly when she complimented his drawing. "Thanks. I got this good through lots of practice, and no life outside my sketchbook during High School." He laughed. "Besides, it's my job to draw well... it'd kinda suck if I tattooed a big scribble on you, huh?" He smiled.

Gabriel picked up the form, reading it, and nodding. "Great! Now, because this is a back tattoo, you won't be able to wear a bra for the first two or three weeks of healing, so you don't rub the scabs off and cause scarring. After that, I'd recommend putting padding between your bra strap and your skin if possible, so it doesn't rub." He smiled. "It's just standard healing other than that, make sure to moisturise regularly, I recommend Johnson's baby lotion, it's what I use. And whatever you do, absolutely do NOT pick the scabs, or you WILL get scarring."

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

"Well i fail at drawing and you are good at it. See complete opposites!" She said with a grin. She laughed a bit when he mentioned her tattoo as a scribble. He then went over the facts. She nodded and laughed a bit. She was really screwed now, no bra? that sucked.

"Okay, i got the idea. No picking scabs. Gross." She said with a grin. "So will we be able to do this today, or do we set up an appointment?"

 

[Gabriel Blume]

He laughed. "You're gonna get inked though. That makes you my sister in body mod." He grinned.

Gabriel nodded. "It's gonna itch like crazy when it's healing, but seriously, don't scratch." He pulled one leg up, and showed her a faded outline of a star with patches of blue colour in it. "That's what happens when you scratch at it before it's healed. Nobody told me that though, when I got my first tatt." He laughed.

"Today is fine actually, I've got no appointments and we've had no walkins at all. It'll take about half an hour to autoclave the needles, but that's cool, because the apprentice who's supposed to be watching the desk is getting his sleeves done, and that'll take about another half hour or so." He smiled. "C'mon, the rooms are back here." He gestured to a door behind the desk. "I'll get you set up and get the needles sterilising."

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

'sister, darn.' she thought to herself. "Cool." She said.

"I'm so excited to get inked. I promise i wont itch like you did." She grinned at him, following his motion. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach. She smiled really wide. "Yay!" She knew she looked like an idiot. But she was still happy.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

He laughed. "Everyone wants to itch. It's human nature. Just don't do it." He smiled, then paused, realising he had forgotten something. "Oh, right. It's going to take about two or three hours to do the outlines, and for something this size, it's ninety dollars an hour." He smiled. "That's a pretty good price, since it's quality work. It's only one colour of ink though, which makes it cheaper, and I've dropped the price a little more, just for you." He smiled, and winked, gathering up the original photo, Sarah's health form, and his sketches.

Gabriel laughed when she said yay. "It's exciting, right? Right after it's done, you'll want to go get more. It's so addictive." He grinned.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

Sarah smiled at him. She had money on hand, and a lot of it. She had expected prices to be high, so she shrugged. He mentioned dropping the price for her, and then he winked. She giggled a bit. "I'm so nervous though! I can't wait to see what me friend thinks. He's gonna love it!" She said, thinking of Kari. He was her bestie and she hoped that he would like it.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel grinned. "I'm sure he'll love it. It's a beautiful design." He smiled, and led the way through to the free one of their two tattooing rooms. It was all white, with a white leather chair in the middle, and had the same sort of feeling as a dentist's office. Gabriel stuck his head into the other room quickly, letting the apprentice know that he had a customer, and needed him back at the desk as soon as the sleeves were done. Then he came into Sarah's room, and shut the door, going to wash his hands.

"So you just want black ink, right? I can do it in any colour you want, I just need to know before to mix the ink. It's cheaper if it's all one colour but it's up to you." He smiled, putting hand sanitiser on his hands, then a fresh pair of latex gloves. He took some needles in a sterile bag out of the cuboard and opened the bag, putting the needles in a machine that looked like a microwave and turning it on. "That's the autoclave." He explained, removing the gloves and throwing them out. "It sterilises the needles so they're absolutely clean. Have a seat." He added, taking out pencil and paper. "I just need to do a couple more sketches, then I can draw the outline on your back in pen and you can have a look in the mirror to see if it's just how you want it." He smiled.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She took a deep breath as they entered a room. It reminded her of a dentists office, except it didn't smell like rotting teeth and mint. He said something to someone in another room and then turned his attention to her. He asked if she just wanted black ink, and she answered him. "Actually, do you think it could be green. It's a personal favorite color of mine." Seh lied. It was KAri's favorite, but she knew it would look okay green. She smiled and took a seat in the chair. "So hows this gonna work?" Seh asked, realizing she was wearing a dress.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel nodded. "Green's fine." He smiled. They had just had a new delivery of ink, so all the pottles in the cupboard were guaranteed to be full. He sketched the wing design a couple more times, working out the finer detail, then Sarah asked how it was going to work. Gabriel considered it. "Does your dress undo at the back?" He asked. "If so, you can just lie on your front with the dress and your bra undone, so you don't have to feel exposed." He smiled. "It doesn't matter just yet though, it'll be awhile before I have to start drawing on you." He smiled. "Is there any particular shade of green you want? I can go as dark or as light as you like." He smiled.

 

[Sarah Xu-Marion]

She bit her lip and felt the back of her dress. There was no zipper on it. "no it doesn't." She said with a sigh. But that's okay, it's purely professional." She said, reassuring herself. "A medium green is fine." She said with a smile. She thought about what he said, it was going to be a while, so she didn't need to worry.

 

[Gabriel Blume]

Gabriel nodded, smiling. "Some people just come in here and strip off. God, I was so shocked the first time it happened... I turned around and there was this naked guy in front of me asking me to tattoo his arse." He laughed. "I was shellshocked... all I could think of to say was "You didn't need to take your shirt off, sir." It was so embarassing." He grinned.

Gabriel nodded. "I'll mix the ink in a second then show you, so you can be sure it's the colour you want." He finished the sketch, then took a few of the best sketches, along with the original photo, and pinned it to the wall, so he could see them clearly while working. Then he washed his hands, sanitised them, and put on gloves again, opening a cuboard and taking out three different shades of green ink, which he mixed in one pottle, then showed to Sarah. "This look like a good shade?" He dipped a brush in to demonstrate, and ran it across some spare paper, showing a bright, natural medium green.