12 of 100 - Toni's Tattoo

Pushing the door open and walking into the cooled air of the shop raised goose bumps on Markie’s flesh. She instinctively raised her hands to her bare arms and rubbed as a shiver raced through her from scalp to toes. She waited a few moments, blinking then squinting, waiting for her eyes to adjust from the humid, sunlit day outside to the cool, dim, cave-like gloom where she stood.

The door chime clanged again as Toni came in behind her.

“Shit. It’s dark in here,” Toni spoke quietly just behind her friend and, like Markie, held her arms in a semi self-embrace. “Cold too.”

The two girls stood waiting, and looked around at the walls. They were covered with designs – some simple line drawings in black and white of Celtic knots and Chinese characters and some intricate colored drawings of skulls and women and bleeding hearts.

“How the fuck could you pick something out of all that?” Toni asked. She carried a sheet of paper that showed a simple design of two hearts, one flipped upside down and overlapping the other. She held it up to Markie. “So what color do you think I should do these?”

Before Markie could answer, a man came from a back room. He was a large man; Markie guessed he had to be over 6’4”, and he was thick. Not fat, but solid and thick. Not surprisingly, he was covered in tattoos.

“Hey girls. Want some ink?” He set down the large box he carried, and Markie noticed the muscles moving his skin, his tattoos writhing and undulating like each picture lived independently of its host. She shivered again.

“Yeah, I do,” Toni said. She thrust the sheet at him as he straightened and approached them. He came close, and Markie took a half-step back. Her personal space was wide, unless she was working, and she recoiled whenever anyone encroached it uninvited. And this man was uninvited. Something dark there, she thought. Something dark. She stayed back a few steps as Toni looked with him at her design.

“Hmm. Yeah, I like this. Cool. Where do you want it?” He looked up from the paper at Toni, taking her in with his eyes, slowly raising them from the paper to her bared belly and moving up, leisurely and, Markie thought, hungrily, through her breasts, shoulders, neck, her mouth and finally her eyes. He stayed there, holding her gaze, until she looked away and nervously laughed. The control he exhibited was masterful, and Markie was suddenly glad she was not the one who was going to have his hands on her.

As if reading her mind, he looked over at Markie, raised his eyebrows, lingered there, then looked back to Toni. Toni missed the whole exchange as she pulled the waistband of her shorts down low, to just above her pubic bone.

“Here. I want it here. With the two bumps of the upside down heart kind of framing my clit, you know? And the right side up heart’s point kind of, you know, pointing at it like, ‘here it is guys!’” She laughed at herself and looked up at the man. “Can you do that?”

He reached down and laid his hand flat on her belly. He moved it down slowly and pulled away, leaving one finger against her skin. “Like this?” he asked and traced the design on the bare skin where there once had been pubic hair. Toni gasped slightly at his touch, and then laughed again, this time less lightly.

“Yeah. Like that. Can you do it now?”

He moved his hands from her skin and took the paper.

“Well, turns out it’s your lucky day, sweetheart. I just had a cancellation for a Prince Albert piercing, so I’ve got an hour to spare. I’d much rather have my hands on you than be handling some guy’s dick.” He raised his hand and set it lightly on the back of Toni’s neck. “Let’s go back here and pick out some colors.” He turned back to Markie, “You coming too? Or you just going to stand there?”

Markie followed as he walked Toni, still holding her neck, back through the opening.