"Man, that sucks," Lauren said, shaking her head. Was that another thing she was going to have to look into? Lightning rods or fire insurance or something? She hadn't really thought about any of it when she was just a tattoo artist working for Bailey - who probably would've been able to handle any fire stuff anyway. She put that aside as he joined her at the counter, clearing a few things aside to make room for the spread drawings.
"Wow, that's nice," she said, leaning forward to get a better look at the art. "Your designs, you said? Did you draw them, too?" Sometimes working with artists - actually talented or just deluded - could be a pain. They wanted it just so, didn't like constructive criticism on the piece, and were so resistant that they ended up with a crappy tattoo instead of listening to the person who was actually an expert on skin art. But she didn't get that vibe from this guy. Plus he had quite a bit of good art on display already. "Do you tattoo?" She'd wonder why he didn't want anyone from his own shop doing the work, but it wasn't something she was going to ask.
"I think we could get this done in a couple of hours, tops," she said, eyes methodically scanning the piece. "Looks like the hard work's already done, after all." Though she did a lot of linework, so she'd probably have found the outline the best part to work on. "Why don't you page through some of our portfolios, see if you see anyone's style that sticks out?" Her own book was in there, but she wasn't going to pick hers out. Let him choose the art style that spoke to him most. They had a variety - one of her artists had an interesting watercolor style, a very pale wash of color, one went the opposite direction with impossibly bright colors. Lauren's personal style was a mixture of between realism and vibrancy without being garish; she loved to play with color to find just the right balance.