49th Summer 512 AV
To anyone who frequented the Equinox it was obvious that today was going to be a weird day. Tongue was gone again, probably still sore over the events from the
day before, so it would be awkwardly quiet again. And then to put everyone even more off-balance, Wart showed up
smiling.Even Lewd, who was still unhappy with her over having temporarily lost them a valuable tattooist, couldn't help but be taken aback when he noticed her unusually light mood.
"Gods Swarthy you murdered someone didn't you."
Wart simply stuck her tongue out at him and continued over to her station. He could be a vagik all he wanted to, today she just didn't care. Across the room Eth and him exchanged a careful look. The boy liked this mood and allowed himself his own small smile, but at the same time couldn't help but feel nervous about what it actually meant. He even shot Coal a glance as some worst case scenarios involving Tongue entered his mind. She looked up at him and shook her head, evidently sensing what he was thinking, then apathetically returned to her usual sketching.
Wart took out her pigskin and some papers as she usually did before customers started showing up. She often didn't have much time for practicing anymore as she was expected to start taking more customers, as apposed to waiting for every other tattooist to have their own. As such he had to start quickly if she wanted to get anything done. She decided she'd start on a fresh sheet, having messed up her last one. Taking a needle and some plain black ink she got started.
She worked fairly absent-mindedly, thoughts still lingering on the night before and causing her persistent grin. Her hands moved automatically, dipping the needle into the ink and slowly tapping into the skin without any actual planned design or outline to follow. It took her a long time to even realize what the strokes and lines of tapping were creating, as preoccupied as she was with the memories of images and feelings from her time with Tock.
The needle was dipped in ink, tap-tap-tapped, a quick dab with a cloth for extra ink, then repeated. She went slowly down and up, down and up, around a curve or two, over to a new spot. So caught up was she in her thoughts that she didn't even hear (or smell) Lewd standing behind her.
"So's that who you're smiling about."
Startled Wart jumped and whipped around. She glared at her boss, ready to snap at him for interrupting, then froze. Her eyes flew back to the pigskin and realized that her practice tattooing had so far created the basic outline of a woman's face with the start of some short hair, and what looked like a single streak separated from the rest.
SHYKE...Immediately she swept up the sheet and shoved it into one of the drawers in front of her. Face quickly turning a cherry red she stared straight ahead not daring to look back again. "Wha's… I-I dunno wha's wrong with you all that I gots ta have a petching stupid reason to smile there's no rules against it is ere?! So -- so why don't you jus let me get ta work a'right??"
The snide grin obvious in his voice Lewd replied "You know love I ain't seen your eyes pink like that before. I 'ad this vantha girlfriend while back an' her eyes would only get that color when we were--"
"GODS Lewd!" Wart stood and noticed a young man had just walked into the shop. Welcoming the chance to get away from the conversation she beckoned to him before he had the chance to wander over to either of the other artsits. "Hey come on I'm open o'er here!"
Lewd, laughing hysterically to himself, walked to his office. "I ain't letting you off this easy Swarthy."
Under her breath Wart muttered "Oh shut it petching stupid vagik he's so full of shyke…"
The boy, now rightly nervous at the strange outbursts following his coming in, made his way over to the woman's station. He sat down at the chair there, turned sideways facing the artist.
Gaining back her composure and trying to will her eyes to their usual purple-blue, or even at least a red, she put herself back into a working mindset. Her thoughts from earlier still lingered in her mind, but she forced them down enough to keep her mind on her work.
"So watcha want kid, tattoo, touch up, temporary?" He looked like he must be Svefran and his arms were already covered in a few ocean related tattoos, a trademark orca over on his forearm.
"Touch up, mam, on this one righ' here." He gestured to a tattoo on his left bicep where there was some faded waves and a tentacle coming out of them.
"Yeah jus cut the mam shyke now a'right." That kind of formal crap annoyed her. Unlike Eth she was focused on just getting the job done and hated unnecessary chatting with the customer, let alone having to work with some kid going "yes mam" and "no mam" the entire time too. Moving closer she looked at it carefully. It would be an easy job, the waves need some darkening and the outline of the crests needed a bit better defining. The tentacle too needed some better definition on the suction cups and some reapplying of faded color. Altogether it'd be a lot quicker compared to the usual applying of an entirely new tattoo.
"Well I'll 'ave to mix some inks ta get the same colors as ya got there but shouldn' be hard. That all ya want?"
"Yes m-" Wart looked up and shot him a look. "Yes, that's, that's all." He nodded and looked down at the floor. This was slightly weird, most Svefras she'd met were more like Tongue, talkative and headstrong. This kid must have had some strict parents.
Swiveling in her stool she opened up a couple of drawers and started taking out a bunch of ink containers, as well as a couple of empty ones. She'd start with the wave color. They already had one that was fairly close to the one that was used when he'd originally gotten the tattoo. She poured a little of that into an empty container, then added a hint of green, and a little white. Swirling it around a bit she held it up to the kid's bicep. Just a couple drops of a darker blue and it was almost exact. She was still working hard to catch up to everyone else in tattoo skill levels but mixing colors was one thing she already knew about.
She used the same basic process to make the violet-red color of the tentacle, then, once verifying that it was close enough in color, got ready to do the touching up.
Wart told the boy to sit back and took out a small bottle of cleaning mix. Dabbing it on a rag she then rubbed it over the general area of the tattoo, making sure that it was clean before she started working. Dipping a needle into the blue she started gently tapping over on the crests of the waves. She was very slow and careful with it, knowing that these kinds of simple outlines tended to be her weak point. Her face was close to the boy's arm, completely focused on staying straight on the original lines. Wiping away extra ink and blood ever so often, as well as re-dipping the needle into ink, she continued.
It took a bit longer than she'd have liked to keep it precise, but finally she was able to sit up and look it over. It was definitely better, the wave was more set apart from the area around it. Now came the darkening, which should be slightly easier.
As easy as it was the darkening took much longer. For one it was a larger area, and two she had to go every spot thoroughly so that there weren't visible strokes or lighter areas. It took some extra work to get it one solid color, which was something she learned the hard way with the first few tattoos she'd done here. A couple details were added in with a slightly lighter blue, and it was done. Grabbing a small hand held mirror she held it up to make sure the boy was alright with it. A nod from him and Wart went on to the tentacle.
The suction cups were the simplest of all. A bit of tiny black strokes for shadowing was all they needed. The coloring for the rest of it went much the same as the waves did, with some extra care to move around all of the other bits of detail.
When all was done and all extra ink was carefully removed, the boy sat up and looked it over as Wart began to clean up and put the inks away. She would keep the spare ink mixes just in case, as she usually did when she had to make new colors. There was no sense in throwing it out. Chances were they would just get another customer needed touch ups at some point and if they came from the same original tattoo artists they'd probably need those colors.
As she turned the kid paid her the cost of the touch up. "Thank you, its perfect." He remembered this time to leave out the formality, and saved Wart the glare. Digging in his pocket again he then brought out two gold mizas and handed it to her as well. "For a uh, tip. I-I'm sorry I don't, don't have much."
Wart looked at it in surprise. She didn't often get tips of any sort, most of her customers being "rude ass vagiks," and if she did they weren't more than a few copper mizas, a silver if she was lucky. As he started to leave she stood and said "Hey, no you wait I ain't taken this y-"
"No, keep it, please. Mam." He smiled mischievously and continued out the door. Wart sat back in her stool and shook her head, a small grin on her face.
Svefra punk. She slipped the "tip" in her pocket and went back to cleaning everything up. Gods knew she needed all the money she could get, but that kid was too generous.
He's a lil' thief for sure. Looking around she noticed that Eth had a customer of his own, an older man whom he seemed to be discussing ships with as he applied an anchor to his shoulder. Coal's station was still vacant, and she was bent over yet another tattoo design. A glance to make sure that Lewd's door was closed, and she turned back around and opened up one of her drawers.
She subtly slipped out the pigskin she'd started. Looking it over it really wasn't half bad. Though it still needed some details around the face, the eyes, nose…
"So what's her name?"
"GODS LEWD!!" Jumping up in her seat she swung around and smacked him hard on the arm. "YOU STUPID PETCHING VAGIK DON'T DO THAT!!!"
by Wart on September 1st, 2012, 2:00 am 
I can't give you drawing though, since you actually have to focus on the act itself rather than randomly scribbling 
