Ink Me (The tattoo parlor is open!)

Sid was the kind of guy who just jumped into whatever had caught his passing fancy, but he found himself actually getting excited for this tat. He imagined that it would look great if she could make the glowy thing really, actually glowy. He imagined walking around at night sporting the tat, being invisible to the world save for the mysterious stripes and patterns of blue on his bicep. The idea was so tantalizing he could almost taste it

Well it was that he was tasting or he should stop playing with his lip ring. He finally freed it from his teeth and followed her to the station she moved to, sitting there and offering her his right arm, the one on the side of his head that was shaved.

The drow let himself relax on the woman's admittedly very comfy chair thing, looking just beyond her to where the other guy was standing, seemingly watching it all as it happened. Mz'sid didn't care really--nothing about getting a tattoo on his arm was exactly private, not to mention he'd be sporting it all around town when it was finished anyway.

How long did it take to finish a tattoo anyway?

Oh well. It's not like he had anything else to do today.

When Jacob said he was getting a tattoo for a woman, the drow suddenly had a much different outlook on the guy. If he was getting a tattoo for a woman, that must mean that he was her most favorite patron. That was a relatively favorable place to be in all things considered, though it didn't stop some woman from out and out killing their most favorite patron. Still, if the woman really liked her patron she wouldn't kill him when she eventually tired of him, and wouldn't abuse him quite as much unless in the case of insolence.

He was a pretty lucky guy all things considered. Having someone to cover his ass when he invariably fucked up at some point.

Actually...

"Yeah, 've never head of it either, but 'm assumin' it'll awesome as hell," he said, muttering a little to himself. "But good job dude, havin' a woman 't tat yourself up for. S'not a bad place t'be all things considered."

"Oh yeah. I think awesomeness is implied in the phrase glowing tattoo."

Jacob crossed his arms and leaned against nearby table as he got himself more comfortable to watch the Dark Elf get a magical(?) tattoo. Just seeing him lay back in the chair brought back memories of himself doing the same thing, under various degrees of inebriation. Come to think of it, if he was going to go through with the tattoo, it would be the first time he did so without some kind of alcohol in his system. It was a revelation that made him frown slightly at himself for being so reckless. But he shook it off quickly.

"It's not all dates and sunshine all the time. But it's damn good anyway."

And it was even more so with Lenn. The relationship he had with Lenn had not been an easy one, in fact it had come with a lot of dangerous baggage that had threatened to end both of them. But no matter what happened, Jacob had refused to give up on her, and so they continued to persist, for those moments where it was just the two of them.

The thought of getting a rose or a heart to symbolize Lenn made Jacob giggle. There was no way Lenn was going to appreciate being immortalized by such feminine imagery. Not even a dragon, and especially not horses. If she had it her way, she probably would have wanted... a gun or something.

"Well, uh, she's a different kind of woman. Beautiful and easy on the eyes, but she ain't exactly the rose and ribbon kind of girl..."

Jacob was already tensing up at the idea of the Dark Elf screeching from the needle, screeching that was only going to get layered on top of the squeal of the tattoo needle.

"I'd take it, man. I mean, if you can take it, go on ahead. But I'd have loved to be a little... out of it when I got mine done. If only to make it more fun."

Feeling the lady work on his arm felt more weird than anything. It was sort of like the feeling of just having someone drawing on your arm, except Sid had never done that before. He'd had no reason to. There was no color of normal ink that he could find anywhere that made anything show up on his skin. Almost made him wonder why he decided to take a chance here.

Maybe he was an optimist.

Or an idiot.

One or the other.

Probably both.

Laying back on the chair, letting himself get relaxed by the relatively rhythmic motion of her stencils, he cracked open one of his eyes when she asked if he wanted to take something before she got started on the tattoo. Something about her not wanting him to scream up her tattoo parlor.

Actually, he wasn't even sure if pain killers would work on him, or how strong they would have to be to stay in his system for however long it took a tattoo to get inked in.

But he'd been whipped by a whip of braided snakes with living, weaving heads, taken a sword to various parts of his body. Endured all kinds of torment from monsters much bigger than him that scuttled around in the underdark. There'd been nights when he, a broken shell of himself had just slumped into a small alcove to sleep off an intense scrimmage for his life.

"I'll be fine." He said, closing his eye again, going back to his relaxed recline.

The canvas had laid back and turned down the offer and the artist had transitioned into her Zone. Jacob quieted up when it came time for the work to begin and, for a few moments, the only sound that could be heard was the high-pitched buzz of the tattoo needle working. But just being silent and courteous did not mean his curiosity had been tempered. Jacob still wanted to see Thorn follow through on her claims about her work.

The young woman did not disappoint. As he leaned forward for a better angle on her work, Jacob's eyes immediately noticed how vibrant the colors looked despite being put on such dark skin. For a moment he thought that she might be bluffing or putting on a show because colors that rich were, from his experience, only possible through paint application and not tattoo ink. But the buzzing was real and he could see his skin react to the needle, so Thorn was really inking the Dark Elf for reals.

He expressed silent amazement at her work until she offered a suggestion.

"Lighting. Lightning... Hm..."

Jacob held his chin as he thought about it.

"Maybe. It would be realistic-ish, right? I don't want a cartoon bolt for her. And it still needs to looks beautiful and be more... her."

He had to start pacing around the chair as he thought out loud.

"Lenn loves guns. But I don't want her to be symbolized by that... We worked so hard to get her away from that life. Hm. Maybe a portrait or pin-up of some kind? With the lightning? I could probably find a picture of her on my phone."

Man, this couch thing was comfortable.

The drow nodded when she said that the smoke was available and all he needed to do was ask, but Sid was confident that he wouldn't need it. He'd endured enough pain in his life that more wouldn't cause any harm.

When the buzzing started and the needle met his skin, it hurt more than he expected, but not enough to make him cry out. It probably had something to do with how tightly his skin was stretched over his muscle--there wasn't very much give in his arm. Some of the nicest looking tattoos, he remembered, were on people who were only muscular in the sense that they had some muscle but also a bit of fat.

Sid had a bit less fat than the average drow, which made this experience a little more uncomfortable than he thought it would be.

Still. He adjusted. His pained expression relaxed for the most part, and he sort of only half listened to what they were talking about.

Something about getting a tattoo of lightning for the woman.

"Man if we're talking forces a' nature fire's pretty sick." He muttered. "'Sides, ain't lightning pretty short-lived? Like a bright, hot, flash n' then nothin'?"

d"Aw man. Fire. I forgot about that! Fire could definitely describe Lenn too."

His options were piling up and Jacob was actually starting to feel some pressure to decide on what he wanted his tattoo to be. He had went from almost "no ideas" to 'too many ideas" in a short amount of time thanks to Thorn and Sid, and they all sounded pretty good in his head. Lenn was a bit like lightning and a bit like fire, and a whole lot sexy and alluring. There were too many things he wanted to capture about her in the tattoo. He never had this much trouble getting his tattoo for his first wife. That one was simple. Two halves of the Yin-Yang. Done.

Jacob was able to breathe a small sigh of relief, however, when Thorn voiced her disapproval of a pin-up tattoo. It had sounded good, but maybe she was right. It was a little tasteless. Jacob wanted something a little more artful and elegant.

"A silhouette, huh? That could work. With some fire and/or lightning? Maybe around it, or fill it?"

Just then he found a good picture of Lenn to show off when Thorn got done with Sid. He blushed slightly at it, and smiled too. But for the moment, they would not see it. Especially after Thorn turned off the lights and Jacob was treated to the full potential of her tattoo skills.

"Woooooow. That's amazing."

Sid let out a quiet chuckle as the other two people in the room seemed to smack themselves in the face at his reminder that fire was a little more long-lasting than lightning. And, in his opinion, fire seemed to have a bit more destructive ability in practice than lightning. Lightning could strike and scorch the earth but do nothing besides that. Fire could touch the earth and travel, nibble and crack trees, kill people.

Plus fire was slightly easier on his eyes.

The drow opened his eyes and turned his head to see how far Thorn had gotten on his tattoo. It wasn't bad. The gray of the cat was filled in, and it looked like she was starting to put in the teeth and the stripes that--holy shit--were actually, literally, a glowing blue.

Yeah, he liked it. This was definitely one of his more worthwhile split second decisions. When they lights came back on he rubbed his eyes with his clean arm. Fuck lights. Just fuck everything about lights. He hated them with a passion he could only dream about. It was the one thing he could appreciate about the underdark--there was layers upon layers of solid rock separating the drow from the loathsome sun and any kind of intrusive lighting. They never had to worry about being light- or dark- blind, but that was something he had to deal with constantly.

God he hated this place.

But he loved it so much.

When he tried to imagine a silhouette being surrounded or filled with fire or lightning, he couldn't contain a chortle, though he tried to be as still as possible and act like a good canvas for the artist who was working on him.

"A silhouette with fire or lightnin'... sounds kinda Eye o' Sauron -ish, don't it?"

Mz'sid gave his new tat another look, whistling. "That's awesome."