Ink Me (The tattoo parlor is open!)

You know what would be fun?

What?

Getting a tattoo.

Fuck yeah that'd be fun!

Personally Mz'sid tended to prefer piercings--they were easily visible on his skin and caused such a delicious sting the first time he got the hole open, but since he'd gotten good at putting needles into his face in the mirror, it had lost a lot of its luster. Maybe it was just that he was starting to get used to the localized pain and hot throb that tended to follow for several weeks, but recently he'd started to get a little less enjoyment out of giving himself more piercings.

After all, his pre-class ritual involved him having to wake up and put them all back in.

Not counting his nose piercings. He never took those out. He wasn't even sure how, actually. Pretty sure you weren't supposed to.

But it was that fleeting thought that brought him all the way to the tattoo parlor, pressing his back to the door to open it, taking in the decor, the woman getting a belly button pierced, another woman at the windowsill drinking something (was it coffee).

"Yo," He said speaking to the store at large. He wasn't really sure who was the person who actually gave the bitchin' tattoos he'd heard so much about. Well, he was sure of one thing, it probably wasn't the woman getting her belly button pierced over there. Ooh, he'd never thought of that. Maybe he'd add a Jacob's Ladder to his collection. "I want a tattoo. I heard there was someone here who was good at 'em?"

Jacob had been washing up about a week ago and something had wormed its way into his brain, and refused to leave. After stepping out of the shower and drying himself off, he caught himself in the mirror. What normally would have been an act so banal that it would not even register in his memory surprisingly became a train of thought that just kept going and going: he spotted his tattoo from his former marriage. For some reason, the white half of the Yin-Yang symbol(He always forgot which half it was was) that sat right below his left hip bone caught his eye and his mind. For a few moments, he looked at it, then out the door to where his current girlfriend Lenn was sleeping, and then back to it. After that, he went about his day, but with a thought in his head.

For the next several days he contemplated getting a new tattoo. It would be his third one in his life time, after the Yin-Yang that was the product of his last marriage and the flaming snake skeleton on his left shoulder that was the product of being drunk and young. Almost without having to think about it, he knew what the tattoo would be for, or mean to him. It was going to be for or about Lenn.

His main source of contention against the idea was himself. It seemed foolish to get another tattoo to commemorate a relationship after he continued to wear the first one. What seemed like a cool and sexy idea at the time was now a small but persistent reminder of a woman he once loved, and had now lost along with time with his own daughter. But at the very least, it was just abstract symbol that still looked sexy to other people and was not, for example, her name inked onto him.

He was grappling with the idea all the way up until the point where he actually arrived at the tattoo parlor. By that point, he realized that his desire to get the tattoo outweighed his misgivings about getting another that revolved around a woman. Otherwise, his feet would not have carried him all the way there in the first place. With a sigh, he pushed open the door.

What he found was apparently a dark elf(?) looking to get a tattoo as well, and the lone artist on hand who looked like she fit the part. Jacob could just feel the day taking on an odd quality.

"Oh. Am I interrupting an appointment, miss?"

Sid was just casually looking around when the woman who'd been smoking near the window came to him and addressed him. So she was the one who good at tattoos? That made sense. She was inked up in a way that made him envious. Speaking to her almost immediately and subconsciously caused him to be more respectful. Where he was from a woman could kill a male like him without a second thought and no fear of retribution. Due respect was required if you didn't want to die.

"Oh okay. That's great. 'S good to know I'll in capable hands."

He took the album and flipped through it, regarding each one with interest before he reached the end. Mz'sid wasn't really interested in the tattoos in book. Most of them had a punky, mostly gray aesthetic that didn't really appeal to him, and the ones that did it were pinups. He didn't even want to think of the implications of that. Like, at all.

Now he was in an awkward position. He didn't want any of the tattoos in her book, but he wasn't totally sure how to ask her if she had other tattoos available.

But she said that she allowed other ideas so... he would be remiss to not speak his mind, right?

Here's hoping.

"Actually, I was hoping for something more colorful?" the drow said, almost sounding meek about it. "Maybe something more... cartoony?"

After getting his first two tattoos, Jacob was vaguely aware of how difficult the process was for people with dark complexions. Getting the white symbol on his hip had proved to be a difficult process because of his own dark skin. So he had to wonder how in the world the Dark Elf planned on getting his tattoo, or any tattoo for that matter. His skin was darker than dark, and not even in the normal fashion, so there were not a lot of colors that would show up, and what did make it onto his skin would not be all that visible. But the artist seemed unconcerned with it, so maybe she had something up her sleeve.

And it seemed she did. Jacob raised a curious eyebrow at her as he took a seat.

"Are we talking actual magic needles here? Around here it's often difficult to tell when someone is using a turn-of-phrase, or actually being literal."

It was a subtle nuance of Manta Carlos that took everyone quite a long time to come to grips with. Sayings and idiomatic phrases took on new meaning when they could just as easily be real, and people could cast magic or just be magic.

Wanting to see more of what she had to offer, Jacob leaned forward in his seat.

"As for my own request... I still need to settle on something. I figured my tattoo artist could help me figure out something."

Hearing the door open, Mz'sid looked over his shoulder towards the entrance, regarding the man standing there. He seemed familiar to him, but at the same time most people, just in general, looked the same to him. Of course, people with really fucked up bodies with like, four arms or whatever were easy to tell apart from other people. At the same time though, you didn't see too many four armed dudes traipsing around town.

At least, he didn't remember seeing too many of them.

His ears gave a displeased twitch before he turned his attention back to the artists and her sketchbook as she created a design for him. He liked the idea of the elegant cat with orange eyes, and stars decorated against the starry night sky of his own complexion, he wasn't a huge fan of the idea of a gray cat on his skin. In his personal opinion, he was gray enough for the both of them.

It's one of the reasons that he refused to settle for normal piercings, and had a veritable rainbow of piercings on his face.

Plus, he wouldn't exactly call something gray with orange eyes "colorful".

"I like the design," he said as he idly played with the hoop in his lip with his tongue. "Does the cat hafta all be gray? I was actually kinda thinkin it could be a, Cheshire Cat type dealie."

He extended his arm to her, gesturing to his arm as he spoke. "I was thinkin' it could be sorta a striped cat, maybe gray 'n blue? Like a glowin' blue color right? 'N its tail could kinda wrap around my arm here... with this big, toothy grin, ya know?"

When he was younger, much younger, Jacob had considered getting himself some piercings. He thought about getting the typical cool guy piercings like a bunch in his ear, an eyebrow piercing, or maybe even one lips piercing. But probably only one of those sets. Even back then he knew that he was not going to get a lot of them, and he certainly would never intend on getting the amount that the Dark Elf as sporting. Far be it for him to judge the Dark Elf's body art choices, but Jacob could not picture himself handling all those hoops, studs, and rods on a daily basis. Plus, there was no way he was going to stay in the teaching field with a face full of metal.

Tattoos, on the other hand, were much easier to hide underneath his clothing for when he needed to be formal, and needed less long term maintenance. In fact, he was pretty sure he could get away with some larger pieces as long as they weren't on his face and neck. Standards were more accepting of tattoos now, as long as they were tasteful.

"Yeah... I don't want something like a mural on me..."

A hint of red appeared on his cheeks when the young woman gave a pretty good read on the purpose of his visit.

"Heh. You got me. I ain't tryin' to risk my job, but I got somethin' important, to me, that deserves this. Stop me if you've heard this, but it's a woman."

Something the woman said about the Dark Elf's tattoo caught Jacob's attention, and he was curious enough to get up from his seat to stand near where she was working. Of course he gave the two of them the room they would need, but he had to see what she was talking about. And he wanted to see how the guy's Cheshire Cat turned out.

"I've never heard of a glowing tattoo before. Is that your specialty?"'