“Yeah,” she answered with a surprised look on her face. “His name and birthday.”
“Three hundred and fifty,” Sawyer quoted. “Takes about an hour and a half for your Latin, and two hours for your footprint. Just tell the guy at the front.”
“Yeah,” the boy said with a big smile. “Cool. So, uh…” he began, then swallowed hard. “Does it hurt?”
“Fuck yeah it hurts,” Sawyer said evenly, Rebecca giggling at his harsh manner.
“Oh,” the boy answered in a sad tone. “Well, okay. That’s badass by the way,” he added, pointing at Rebecca’s back.
“Thanks,” Sawyer said, then rotated in his chair so his back was to the young couple. “Let ‘em know up front.”
The couple stood uncertainly for a moment, then disappeared into the hall without another word.
“Let’s get back to your tattoo. You have another hour before your session ends,” Sawyer said to Rebecca, placing his hand on her back to lower her down.
“So you hate doing footprints, huh?” she asked, as the needle sliced against her skin again.
“Actually, no. I don’t mind them at all. Tattoo artists seem to always tease whatever the trendy tattoo is. Right now that sits pretty high. But it’s always different. One year it’s the tramp stamp, the next year it is the wrist tattoo.”
“Are there any tattoos you won’t do?”
“Sure. I won’t do any Nazi shit, or tattoos filled with hate. I also limit the dark stuff. If it’s too twisted and morbid, I can only do so much. I’m also not good at portraits. I will do them, but it’s not my best skill. I make sure to warn the client first, but they always seem to be happy.” He paused for a second, wiped at her back, and continued on. “I also won’t tattoo on some dude’s junk or a chick’s pussy. I have no desire to be anywhere near that.”
“Not interested in pussy, huh?” Rebecca teased.
Sawyer chuckled. “You know what I mean. I also won’t do neck tattoos or face tattoos unless I can see the person clearly is covered in them. If it’s a first tattoo, I’m not going to do something that is so drastic it could fuck up their future career. No drunk tattoos either. I take this seriously, and so will my clients.”
Rebecca clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut. Her back was on fire, and she wasn’t sure she was going to be able to sit still for much longer. They both sat in silence for a while, but she needed to focus on something besides the constant burn in her back. He must have sensed her discomfort.
“So, tell me why you decided to get a back piece. Pretty ballsy,” Sawyer said over the buzz of the machine.
“I’m asking myself the same question right now.” Her voice cracked. “But seriously, I needed to do something to signal a big change, I guess. It’s hard to explain, but I need to change the course I’ve been on. This is sort of jump starting that.” She inhaled sharply as he tattooed over a rib again.
“Well I’m pretty damn impressed with how you sat today. You took this tattoo better than most grown men. I got further than I was anticipating. At this rate, we may only need a few more sessions.” He sprayed astringent into a paper towel and started wiping down her back.
“Are we done?” She held her breath in anticipation and was ecstatic to hear the tattoo machine being switched off.
“For today. We’ll schedule you another session two weeks from now so you can heal.” He continued to wipe her down. The coolness of the rag felt delightful against the burning sensation on her back. “We got a lot of outline done. In the next session, we’ll do some more outline. Two weeks later we will color it in. Then we will do outline, then color it in, and so on.” He fastened her bra for her, which had her flinching. A shiver ran up her spine. “I stayed away from your bra strap area today, since you weren’t really prepared,” he said.
“Thank you,” she said, barely above a whisper. Exhaustion replaced her adrenalin pretty quickly. She heard the snap of his camera.
“This is what we have so far,” he said, showing her the picture.
She sat up and took the phone from his hand. There was a lot of smeared black all over her skin, but she could see the beginning of her floral masterpiece. “Oh, this is going to look so great. Wow, you did so much!” She turned to look at him in surprise.
He nodded. “Well, it’s easy when I have a client who sits as still as stone.”
She looked at the phone again, in awe that she was staring at her own back. “I’m in shock. I don’t know what to say.”
Sawyer handed Rebecca her shirt. She instantly blushed when she realized she was sitting there in nothing but her bra. “Get dressed and get up slowly. You may feel a little lightheaded. Take it really slow,” he warned.